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MINSTRELSY
SCOTTISH BOEDER
VOL. II.
THE
MINSTRELSY
SCOTTISH BORDER
SIR WALTER SCOTT, Baet.
TflTH
HIS INTRODUCTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND THE
EDITOR'S NOTES.
VOLUME II.
ROBERT CADELL, EDINBURGH:
HOULSTON & STONEMAN, LONDON.
MDCCCXLIX.
CONTENTS
OF VOLUME SECOND.
PAGE
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Part I.
Historical Ballads.
Jamie Telfer of tlie Fair Dodliead, .
3
The Raid of the Reldswlre,
]5
Kmmont "Willie,
32
Dick o' the Cow, .
61
Jock o' the Side, .
76
The Death of Featherstonhaugh,
86
Hobble Noble,
90
Rookhope Ryde,
101
Baithram's Dirge,
112
Archie of Ca'field,
116
Armstrong's Goodnight,
123
The Fray of Suport,
1 — ■
124
Appendix,
131
Lord Maxwell's Goodnight,
133
Appendix,
144
The Lads of Wamphray,
148
Lesly's March,
154
The Battle of Philiphaugh,
166
The Gallant Grahams, .
183
Appendix, . .
.
195
CONTENTS.
The Battle of Pentland Hills,
The Battle of Loudon HiU,
The Battle of Bothwell Bridge, ....
Appendix, .......
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Part II.
Romantic Ballads.
Scottish Music, an Ode,
Introduction to the Tale of Tamlane,
The Young Tamlane, ....
Erliuton, ......
The Twa Corbies, ....
page
199
206
226
241
249
234
337
351
357
MINSTRELSY
SCOTTISH BORDER :
CONSISTING OF
HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC BALLADS,
COLLECTED
IN THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND J WITH A FEW
OF MODERN DATE, FOUNDED UPON
LOCAL TRADITION.
The songs, to savage virtue dear,
That Avon of yore the public ear.
Ere polity, sedate and sage,
Had quench'd the fires of feudal rage.
Wartox,
VOL. II.
EDINBURGH : rKINTEO BY BALLANTVNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK.
JAMIE TELFER
OF THE FAIR DODHEAD.
There is another ballad, under the same title as thefolloiving,
in which nearly the same incidents are narrated, with little
difference, except that the honour of rescuing the cattle is at-
tributed to the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a Chief, thei'e
called Martin Elliot of the Preakin Tower, whose son, Si-
mon, is said to have fallen in the action. It is very possi-
ble, that both the Teviotdale Scotts, and the Elliots, were
engaged m the affair, and that each claimed the honour of
the victory.
The Editor jJfesumes, that the Willie Scott, here mentioned,
must have been a natural son of the Laird of Buccleuch.
It fell about tlie Martinmas tjde,
When our Border steeds get corn and haj,
The Captain of Bewcastle hath bound liim to ryde,
And he's ower to Tividale to drive a prey.
4 MINSTRELSY OF
The lirst ae guide that they met wi',
It was high up in Hardhaughswire ; ^
The second guide that they met wi',
It was laigh down in Borthwick water.^
" What tidings, what tidings, my trusty guide?" —
" Nae tidings, nae tidings, I hae to thee ;
But gin ye'll gae to the fair Dodhead,^
Mony a cow's cauf I'll let thee see." — .
And when they cam to the fair Dodhead,
Right hastily they clam the peel ;
They loosed the kye out, ane and a',
And ranshackled^ the house right week
Now Jamie Telfer's heart was sair,^
The tear aye rowing in his ee ;
He pled wi' the Captain to hae his gear,
Or else revenged he wad be.
The Captain turned him round and leugh ;
Said — " Man, there's naething in thy house,
^ Hardhaugbswire is the pass from Liddesdale to the head of
Teviotdale.
- Borthwick water is a stream, which falls into the Teviot three
miles above Hawick.
3 The Dodhead, in Selkirksliire, near Singlee, where there are
still the vestiges of an old tower.
* Ranshackled — Ransacked.
^ There is stiU a family of Telfers, residing near Langholm, who
pretend to derive their descent from the Telfers of the Dodhead.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. O
But ae auld sword without a sheath,
That hardly now would fell a mouse/' —
The sun wasna up, but the moon was down,
It was the gryming-^ of a new-fa'n snaw,
Jamie Telfer has run ten myles a-foot,
Between the Dodliead and the Stobs's Pla'.-
And when he cam to the fair tower yate,
He shouted loud, and cried weel hie,
Till out bespak auld Gibby Elliot —
" Whae's this that brings the fraye to me ? " — •
" It's I, Jamie Telfer, o' the fair Dodhead,
And a harried man I think I be I
There's naething- left at the fair Dodhead,
But a waefu' wife and bairnies three."
" Gae seek your succour at Branksome Ha'.^
For succour ye'se g-et nane frae me !
Gae seek your succour where ye paid black-mail.
For, man, ye ne'er paid money to me." —
^ Gryming — Sprlnkllug.
^ Stobs Hall, upon Slitterick. [The seat of Sir William Eliott,
Bart ^head of that clan.] Jamie Telfer made Ills first application
here, because he seems to have paid the proprietor of the castle
hlack-mail, or protection money.
^ The ancient family-seat of the Lairds of Buccleuch, near
Hawick.
b MINSTRELSY OF
Jamie lias turned him round about,
I wat the tear bhnded his ee —
" I'll ne'er pay mail to Elliot again,
And the fair Dodhead I'll never see !
" My hounds may a' rin masterless,
My hawks may fly frae tree to tree,
My lord may g-rip my vassal lands,
For there again maun I never be ! " —
He has turn'd him to the Tiviot side,
E'en as fast as he could drie,
Till he cam to the Coultart Cleugh,^
And there he shouted baith loud and hie.
Then up bespak him auld Jock Grieve —
" Whae's this that brings the fraye to me?" —
" It's I, Jamie Telfer o' the fair Dodhead,
A harried man I trow I be.
" There's naething left in the fair Dodhead,
But a greeting wife and bairnies three,
And sax poor ca's^ stand in the sta',
A' routing loud for their minnie." — ^
" Alack a wae ! " quo' auld Jock Grieve,
" Alack ! my heart is sair for thee !
^ The Coultart Cleugh is nearly opposite to Carlinrig, on the road
between Hawick and Mosspaul.
^ Ca's — Calves ^ Minnie — IMother.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
For I was married on the elder sister,
And you on the youngest of a' the three."
Then he has ta'en out a bonny black,
Was right weel fed with corn and hay,
And he's set Jamie Telfer on his back,
To the Catslockhill to tak the fraye.
And whan he cam to the Catslockhill,
He shouted loud, and cried weel hie,
Till out and spak him William's Wat —
" O whae's this brings the fraye to me ?" —
" It's I, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead,
A harried man I think I be !
The Captain of Bewcastle has driven my gear ;
For God's sake rise, and succour me ! " —
" Alas for wae !" quoth William's Wat,
" Alack, for thee my heart is sair !
I never cam by the fair Dodhead,
That ever I fand thy basket bare." —
He's set his twa sons on coal-black steeds,
Himsell upon a freckled gray,
And they are on wi' Jamie Telfer,
To Branksome Ha' to tak the fraye.
And when they cam to Branksome Ha',
They shouted a' baith loud and hie^
S MINSTRELSY OF
Till lip and spak him auld Buccleuch,
Said — " Whae's this brings the fraye to me ? '* —
" It's I, Jamie Telfer o' the fair Dodhead,
And a harried man I think I be !
There's nought left in the fair Dodhead,
But a greeting wife and bairnies three." — •
" Alack for wae ! " quoth the gude auld lord,
" And ever my heart is wae for thee !
But fye g-ar cry on Willie, my son.
And see that he come to me speediHe !
" Gar warn the water, ^ braid and wide.
Gar warn it sune and hastilie !
They that winna ride for Telfer 's kye.
Let them never look in the face o' me !
" Warn Wat o' Harden, and his sons,"
Wi' them will Borthvvick Water ride ;
Warn Gaudilands, and Allanhaug-h,
And Gilmanscleugh, and Commonside.
* The icater, in the mountainous districts of Scotland,* is often
used to express the banks of the river, wliich are the only inhabi-
table parts of the country. To raise the water, therefore, was to
alarm those who hved along its side.
- The estates, mentioned in tliis verse, belonged to families of the
name of Scott, residing upon the waters of Borthwick and Teviot,
near the castle of their Chief.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. y
" Ride by the gate at Priesthaughswire,^
And warn the Currors o' the Lee ;
As ye cnm down the Hermitage Slack,
Warn doughty Wilhe o' Gorrinberry." —
The Scotts they rade, the Scotts they ran,
Sae starkly and sae steadilie !
And aye the ower-word o' the thrang-
Was — " Rise for Branksome readilie I" —
The gear was driven the Frostylee np,"
Frae the Frostylee unto the plain.
Whan Willie has look'd his men before.
And saw the kye right fast drivand.
" Whae drives thir kye ?" 'gan Willie say,
" To make an outspeckle^ o' me ?" —
" It's I, the Captain o' Bewcastle, Willie ;
I winna layne my name for thee." —
" O will ye let Telfer's kye gae back ?
Or will ye do aught for regard o' rae ?
^ The pursuers seem to have taken the road through the hills of
Liddesdale, in order to collect forces, and intercept the forayers at
the passage of the Liddel, on their return to Bewcastle. The Rit-
terford and Kershope-ford, after-mentioned, are noted fords on the
river Liddel.
^ The Frostylee is a brook, which joins the Teviot, near IMoss-
paul.
" Gufsveckle — Lr>uQ,-hino--?tock.
10 MINSTRELSY OF
Or, by tlae faith of my body," quo' Willie Scott,
" I'se ware my dame's cauf skin on thee ! "
" I winna let the kye gae back,
Neither for thy love, nor yet thy fear ;
But I will drive Jamie Telfer's kye.
In spite of every Scott that's here." —
" Set- on them, lads !" quo' Willie than ;
" Fye, lads, set on them cruellie !
For ere they win to the Ritterford,
Mony a toom^ saddle there sail be !" — ■
Then til't they gaed, wi' heart and hand.
The blows fell thick as bickering- hail ;
And mony a horse ran masterless,
And mony a comely cheek was pale.
But Willie was stricken ower the head.
And thro' the knapscap" the sword has gane ;
And Harden grat for very rage,^
Whan Willie on the grund lay slane.
^ Toom — Empty, ^ Knapscap — Headpiece.
^ Of this Border laird, commonly called Auld Wat of Harden,
tradition has preserved many anecdotes. He was married to Mary
Scott, celebrated in song by the title of the Flower of Yarrow.
By their marriage-contract, the father-in-law, Pliilip Scott of Dry-
hope, was to find Harden in horse meat, and man's meat, at liis
Tower of Dryhope, for a year and a day ; but five barons pledge
themselves, that, at the expiry of that period, the son-in-law should
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. II
But he's ta'eii afF his gude steel cap,
And thrice he's waved it in the air —
The Dinlay^ snaw was ne'er mair white
Nor the lyart locks of Hardens hair.
" Revenge ! revenge !" auld Wat 'gan cry;
" Fye, lads, lay on them cruellie !
We'll ne'er see Tiviotside again,
Or Willie's death revenged sail be." — ^
remove, without attempting to continue in possession by force ! A
notary-public signed for all tbe parties to tbe deed, none of wbom
could write tbeir names. Tbe original Is stUl in tbe cbarter-room
of tbe present Mt Scott of Harden. By tbe Flower of Yarrow
tbe Laird of Harden bad six sons ; five of wbom survived bim, and
founded tbe families of Harden, (now extinct,) Higbcbesters, (now
representing Harden,) Reaburn, Wool, and Synton. Tbe slxtb
son was slain at a fray, in a buntlng-matcb, by tbe Scotts of GH-
manscleugb. His brotbers flew to arms ; but tbe old laird secured
tbem in tbe dungeon of bis tower, burried to Edlnburgb, stated
tbe crime, and obtained a gift of tbe lands of tbe offenders from tbe
Crown. He returned to Harden wltb equal speed, released bis
sons, and sbowed tbem tbe cbarter. " To borse, lads!" cried tbe
savage warrior, ' ' and let us take possession ! Tbe lands of Gil-
manscleugb are well wortb a dead son." Tbe property tbus ob-
tained continued in tbe family till tbe beginning of last century,
when it was sold, by John Scott of Harden, to Ann, Ducbess of
Buccleucb. A beautiful ballad, founded on tbis tradition, occurs
in tbe ^Mountain Bard, a collection of legendary poetry, by Mr
James Hogg.
^ The Dinlay — is a mountain in Liddesdale.
^ [Notliing can be more striking tban tbe picture of old Harden^
in tbe figbt for Jamie Telfer's cattle. — Edin. Rev.'\
12 MINSTRELSY OF
O mony a horse ran masterless,
The sphnter'd lances flew on hie ;
But or they wan to the Kershope ford,
The Scotts had gotten the victory.
John o' Brig-ham there was slane/
And John o' Barlow, as I heard say;
And thirty mae o' the Captain's men
Lay bleeding- on the g-rund that day.
Tlie Captain was run through the thick of the thigh,
And broken was his right leg- bane ;
If he had lived this hundred years,
He had never been loved by woman again.
" Hae back the kye ! " the Captain said ;
" Dear kye, I trow, to some they be !
For gin I suld live a hundred years,
There will ne'er fair lady smile on me." —
Then word is gane to the Captain's bride,
Even in the bower where that she lay.
That her lord was prisoner in enemy's land,
Since into Tividale he had led the wav.
^ Perhaps one of the ancient family of Brougliam, in Cumber-
land. The Editor has used some freedom with the original in the
subsequent verse. The account of the Captain's disaster (teste
Iccva vulnerata) is rather too 7ia'ive for literal publication.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 13
" I wad loiird^ have had a winding'-sheet,
And helped to put it ower his head,
Ere he had been disgraced by the Border Scot,
Whan he ower Liddel his men did lead !" —
There was a wild gallant amang us a',
His name was Watty wi' the Wudspurs,"
Cried — " On for his house in Stanegirthside,^
If ony man will ride with us ! "
Wlien they cam to the Stanegirthside,
They dang wi' trees, and burst the door ;
They loosed out a' the Captain's kye,
And set them forth our lads before.
There was an auld wyfe ayont the fire,
A wee bit o' the Captain's kin —
" Whae dar loose out the Captain's kye.
Or answer to him and his men ? " —
" It's I, Watty Wudspurs, loose the kye,
I winna layne my name frae thee !
And I will loose out the Captain's kye.
In scorn of a* his men and he.'"' —
' Lourd — Liefer ; ratlier.
^ Wzulspurs — Hotspur, or Madspur.
^ A Tiouse belonging to tlie Foresters, situated on the English
side of the Liddel.
14 MINSTRELSY OF
Whan they cam to the fair Dodhead,
They were a wellcum sight to see I
For instead of his ain ten milk kye,
Jamie Telfer has gotten thirty and three.
And he has paid the rescue shot,
Baith wi* goud and white monie ;
And at the burial o' Willie Scott,
I wat was mony a weeping ee.^
^ An article in the list of attempts upon England, fouled by tlie
Commissioners at Berwick, in tlie year 1587, may relate to the
subject of the foregoing ballad.
October, 1582.
Thomas Musgrave, de- C Walter Scott, Laird ") 200 klne and
puty of Bewcastle, and the J of Buckluth, and his > oxen, 300 gait
tenants, against (J complices ; for j and sheep.
Introduction to the History of Westmoreland and Cumberlandf
p. 3K
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 15
RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE.
This poem is published from a copy in the Bannatyne
MS., in the handwriting- of the Hon. Mr Carmichael,
advocate. It first appeared in Allan Ramsay s Ever-
green, but some Hberties have been taken by him in
transcribing- it ; and, what is altogether unpardonable,
the MS., which is itself rather inaccurate, has been in-
terpolated to favour his readings ; of which there re-
main obvious marks.
The skirmish of the Reidswire happened upon the
7th of June, 1575, at one of the meetings held by the
Wardens of the Marches, for arrangements necessary
upon the Border. Sir John Carmichael, ancestor of
the present Earl of Hyndford,^ was the Scottish War-
den, and Sir John Forster held that ofifice on the Eng-
lish Middle March. In the course of the day, which
was employed as usual in redressing wrongs, a bill, or
indictment, at the instance of a Scottish complainer,
^ The title of Hymlford is now extinct. 1830.
16 MINSTRELSY OF
was fouled (^. e. found a true bill) against one Farnstein,
a notorious English freebooter. Forster alleged that
he had fled from justice : Carmichael, considering this
as a pretext to avoid making compensation for the
felony, bade him " play fair !" to which the haughty
English warden retorted, by some injurious expressions
respecting Carmichael's family, and gave other open
signs of resentment. His retinue, chiefly men of Redes-
dale and Tynedale, the most ferocious of the Eng-
lish Borderers, glad of any pretext for a quarrel, dis-
charged a flight of arrows among the Scots. A warm
conflict ensued, in which, Carmichael being beat down
and made prisoner, success seemed at first to incline to
the English side, till the Tynedale men, throwing them-
selves too greedily upon the plunder, fell into disorder ;
and a body of Jedburgh citizens arriving at that instant,
the skirmish terminated in a complete victory on the
part of the Scots, who took prisoners, the English
warden, James Ogle, Cuthljert Collingwood, Francis
llussell, son to the Earl of Bedford, and son-in-law to
Forster, some of the Fenwicks, and several other Bor-
der chiefs. They were sent to the Earl of Morton,
then Regent, who detained them at Dalkeith for some
days, till the heat of their resentment was abated ; which
prudent precaution prevented a war betwixt the two
kingdoms. He then dismissed them with great ex-
pressions of regard ; and, to satisfy Queen Elizabeth/
' Her ambassador at Edinburgli refused to lie in a bed of state,
■vvbicli had been provided for bim, till this ^^ oudious fact" had
been enquired into. — ?tluKDi>'s St.ite Papers, vol. ii„ p. 282.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 17
sent Carmicliael to York, whence he was soon after
honourably dismissed. The jGleld of battle, called the
Reidswire, is a part of the Carter Mountain, about ten
miles from Jedburgh. — See, forthese particulars, Gods-
croft, Spottiswoode, and Johnstone's History.
The Editor has adopted the modern spelling- of the
word Reidswire, to prevent the mistake in pronuncia-
tion which might be occasioned by the use of the Scot-
tish qu for w. The MS. reads Reidsquhair. Swair,
or Sivire, signifies the descent of a hill ; and the epithet
Red is derived from the colour of the heath, or perhaps,
from the Reid-water, which rises at no great distance.
VOL II.
18 MINSTRELSY OF
THE
RAID OF THE REIDSWIRE.
The seventh of July, the suith to say,
At the Reidswire the tryst was set ;
Our wardens they affixed the day,
And, as they promised, so they met.
Alas ! that day I'll ne'er forgett !
Was sure sae feard, and then sae faine —
They came theare justice for to gett.
Will never green^ to come again.
Carmichael" was our warden then,
He caused the country to conveen ;
^ Green — Long.
2 Sir John Carmicliael was a favourite of the regent INIorton, by
whom he was appointed Warden of the INIiddle IMarches, in prefer-
ence to the Border Chieftdns. With the like pohcy, the regent
married Archibald Carmicliael, the warden's brother, to the heiress
of Edrom, in the Merse, much contrary to the inchnation of the
lady and her friends. In like manner he compelled another heiress,
Jane Sleigh, of Cumlege, to marry Archibald, brother to Auchuileck
of Auchinleck, one of his dependents. By such arbitrary practices,
Morton meant to strengthen his authority on the Borders ; instead of
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 19
And the Laird's Wat, that worthie man,^
wMch, he hastened Ms fall, by giving disgust to his kinsman the
Earl of Angus, and his other friends, who had been established in the
country for ages — Godscroft, vol. ii. pp. 238, 246. Sir John
Carmichael, the warden, was murdered, 16th June, 1600, by a
party of Borderers, at a place called Raosknows, near Lochmaben,
whither he was going to hold a court of justice. Two of the ring-
leaders in the slaughter, Thomas Armstrong, called Ringan's Tu?n,
and Adam Scott, called the Peckct, were tried at Edinburgh at
the instance of Carmichael of Edrom. They were condemned to
have their right hands struck off, thereafter to be hanged, and their
bodies gibbeted on the Borough :Moor ; which sentence was exe-
cuted 14th November, 1601. " This Pecket" saith Birrel in
his Diary, " was ane of the mostnotalrie thieffes that ever raid ;"
he calls his name Steill, which appears, from the record, to be a
mistake. Four years afterwards, an Armstrong, called Sandy of
Rowanhurn, and several others of that tribe, were executed for
this and other excesses — Books of Adjournal of these dates.
' The Chief who led out the sirname of Scott upon this occa-
sion was (saith Satchells) Walter Scott of Ancrum, a natural sou
of Walter of Buccleuch. The Laird of Buccleuch was then a
minor. The ballad seems to have been popular in Satchell's days,
for he quotes it hterally. He must, however, have been mistakeiL,
in this particular ; for the family of Scott of Ancrum, in all our
books of genealogy, deduce their descent from the Scotts of Bal-
wearie, in Fife, whom they represent. The first of tliis family,
settled in Roxburghsliire, is stated in Douglas' Baronage to have
been Patrick Scott, who purchased the lands of Ancrum in the
reign of James VI. He therefore could not be the Laird's Wat
of the ballad; indeed, from the list of Border families in 1597,
Kerr appears to have been proprietor of Ancrum at the date of the
ballad. It is plainly written in the IMS. the Laird's Wat, i. e.
the Laird's son Wat ; notwithstanding which, it has always hitherto
been printed the Laird Wat. If Douglas be accurate in his ge-
nealogy, the person meant must be the young laird of Buccleuch,
afterwards distinguished for the surprise of Carlisle Castle See
Kinmont Willie, I am the more confirmed in tliis opinion, be-
20 MINSTRELSY OF
Brought in that sirname weil beseen : ^
The Armestranges, that aye hae been
A hardy house, but not a hail,^
The ElHots' honours to maintaine,
Brought down the lave^ o' Liddesdale.
Tlien Tividale came to wi' spied ;
The Sheriife brought the Douglas down,*
cause Kerr of Ancrum was at tliis time a fugitive, for slaying one
of the Rutlierfords, and tlie tower of Ancrum given in keeping to
the TurnbuUs, his hereditary enemies. His mother, however, a
daughter of Home of Wedderburn, contrived to turn out the Turn-
bulls, and possess herself of the place by surprise Godscroft,
vol. ii. p. 250.
•* Weil beseen — Well appointed. The word occurs in Morte
Arthur : " And when Sir Percival saw tliis, he hied him thither,
and found the ship covered with sUke, more blacker than any beare ;
and therein was a gentlewoman, of great beautie, and she was richly
heseene, that none might be better."
^ This clan are here mentioned as not being hail, or whole, be-
cause they were outlawed or broken men. Indeed, many of them
had become Englishmen, as the phrase then went. Accordingly we
find, from Patten, that forty of them, under the Laird of IManger-
toun, joined Somerset, upon his expedition into Scotland. — Pat-
ten, in DalyelVs Fragments, p. 1. There was an old alliance be-
twixt the Elliots and Armstrongs, here alluded to. For the enter-
prise of the Armstrongs, against their native country, when under
English assurance, see Murdin's State Papers, vol. i. p. 43. From
which it appears, that, by command of Sir Ralph Evers, tliis clan
ravaged almost the whole West Border of Scotland.
^ Lave — Remainder.
■* Douglas of Cavers, hereditary Sheriff of Teviotdale, descended
from Black Archibald, who carried the standard of his father, the
Earl of Douglas, at the battle of Otterbourne See the Ballad of
that name.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 21
Wi' Cranstane, Gladstain, good at need/
Baith Rewle water, and Hawick town.
Beanjeddart bauldly made him boun,
Wi' a' the Trumbills, stronge and stout ;
The Rutherfoords, with grit renown,
Convoy'd the town of Jedbrugh out.^
Of other clans I cannot tell.
Because our warning was not wide —
Be this our folks hae ta'en the fell,
And planted down palliones,^ there to bide.
We looked down the other side.
And saw come breasting ower the brae,
Wi' Sir John Forster for their guyde,*
Full fifteen hundred men and mae«
' Cranstoun of tliat ilk, ancestor to Lord Cranstoun ; and Glad-
stain of Gladstains.
^ These were ancient and powerful clans, residing cMefly upon
tlie river Jed. Hence, they naturally convoyed the town of Jed-
burgh out. Although notorious freebooters, they were specially
patronised by Morton, who, by their means, endeavoured to coun-
terpoise the power of Buccleuch and Ferniherst, during the civil
wars attached to the Queen's faction. The following fragment of
an old ballad is quoted in a letter from an aged gentlemsm. of this
name, residing at New York, to a friend in Scotland :
" Bauld Rulherfurd, he was fou stout,
Wi' a' his nine sons him round about j
He led the town o' Jedburgh out.
All bravely fought that day."
' Palliones — Tents.
* Sir John Forster, or, more properly, Forrester, of Balmbrough
Abbey, Warden of the Middle Marches in 1561, was deputy-govei-
22 MINSTRELSY OF
It grieved him sair that day, I trow,
Wi' Sir Georg-e Hearoiine of Schipsydehouse ; ^
Because we were not men enow,
They counted us not worth a louse.
Sir George was gentle, meek, and douse.
But lie was hail and het as fire ;
And yet, for all his cracking crouse,^
He rewd the raid o' the Reidswire.
To deal with proud men is l)ut pain ;
For either must ye fight or flee.
Or else no answer make again.
But play the beast, and let them be.
It was na wonder he was hie.
Had Tindaill, Reedsdaill,^ at his hand,
Wi' Cukdaill, Gladsdaill on the lee.
And Hebsrime,* and Northumberland.
nor of Berwick, and governor of Balmborougli Castle. He made a
great figure on tlie Borders, and is said, on liis monument at Balm-
borough cliurcli, to have possessed the office of Warden of the Mid
JMarches for thirty-seven years ; indeed, if we can trust his succes-
sor, Carey, he retained the situation until he became rather unfit
for its active duties. His family ended in the unfortunate Thomas
Forster, one of the generals of the Northumbrian insurgents in 1 7 15 ;
and the estate, being forfeited, was purchased by his uncle. Lord
Crewe, and devised for the support of liis magnificent charity.
^ George Heron INIiles of Chipchase Castle, probably the same who
was slain at the Reidswire, was Sheriff of Northumberland, 13th
Elizabeth.
^ Cracking crouse — Talking big.
^ These are districts, or dales, on the English Border.
^ Mr George Ellis suggests, with great probability, that tliis is a
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 23
Yett was our meeting- meek eneug-h,
Begun wi' merriment and mowes,
And at the brae, aboon the heugh,
The dark sat down to call the rowes.^
And some for kyne, and some for ewes^
Call'd in of Dandrie,^ Hob, and Jock —
We saw, come marching- ower the knows,
Five hundred Fennicks^ in a flock, —
With jack and speir, and bows all bent,
And warlike weapons at their will :
Although we were na weel content,
Yet, by my troth, we fear'd no ill.
Some g-aed to drink, and some stude still.
And some to cards and dice them sped ;
Till on ane Farnstein they fyled a bill.
And he was fusitive and iled.
mistake, not for Hebburne, as the Editor stated in an earlier edi-
tion, but for Hexham, which, with its territory, formed a county
independent of Northumberland, with which it is here ranked.
* Howes — Rolls.
2 [Dandrie, Dandy, and Dand, are corruptions of Andrew, fami-
liar in the south of Scotland.]
■' The Fenwicks ; a powerful and numerous Northumberland clan.
— The original seat of this ancient family was at Fenwick tower,
long since ruinous; but, from the time of Henry IV., their prin-
cipal mansion was Wallington. Sir John Fenwick, attainted and
executed for treason in the reign of WUliam III., represented the
cliieftain of this clan.
24 MINSTRELSY OF
Carmicliaell bade them speik out plainlie,
And cloke no cause for ill nor good ;
The other, answering him as vainlie,
Began to reckon kin and blood :
He raise, ^ and raxed him where he stood,
And bade him match him with his marrows ;
Then Tindaill heard them reasun rude,
And they loot off a flight of arrows.^
Then was there nought but bow and speir.
And every man puU'd out a brand ;
^ Haise — Rose. Raxed Mm — Stretched liimself up. Mar-
rows— Equals.
^["I have often thought, a fine subject for a Border painting
occurs in the old ballad, called the Raid of the Reidswire, where
the Wardens on either side having met on a day of truce, their
armed followers, and the various tribes, mingled in a friendly man-
ner on each side, till, from some accidental dispute, words grew
high between the Wardens. Mutual insult followed. The Eng-
lish chief addressing the Scottish —
* Raise and rax'd him vi'here he stood.
And bid him match him with his marrows.
Then Tyuedale heard them reason rude.
And they let fly a flight of arrows.'
The two angry chieftains, especially Forster, drawing himself up
in his pride and scorn, would make a good group, backed by the
Tynedale men, bending and drawing their bows ; on the sides you
might have a group busied in their game, whom the alarm had not
yet reached ; another half disturbed ; another, where they were
mounting their horses, and taking to their weapons, with the wild
character pecuhar to the country." — Letter of Sir Walter Scott.
December, 1811.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 25
" A Scliafton and a Fenwick " thare :
Gude Symington was slain frae hand.
The Scotsmen cried on other to stand,
Frae time they saw John Robson slain —
What should they cry ? the King-'s command
Could cause no cowards turn again.
Up rose the laird to red the cumber,^
Which would not be for all his boast ; — ■
What could we doe with sic a number —
Fyve thousand men into a host ?
Then Henry Purdie proved his cost,^
And very narrowlie had mischiefd him,
And there we had our warden lost,
Wert not the grit God he reheved him.
Another throw the breiks him bair,
Whill flatlies to the ground he fell :
Than thought I weel we had lost him there,
Into my stomack it struck a knell !
Yet up he raise, the treuth to tell ye.
And laid about him dints full dour ;
His horsemen they raid sturdily.
And stude about him in the stoure.
Then raise the slogan with ane shout —
" Fy, Tindaill, to it ! Jedburgh's here !"^
* Red the cumber — Quell the tumult.
2 Cost — Signifies loss or risk.
^ The gathering word peculiar to a certain name, or set of people.
26 MINSTRELSY OF
I trow lie was not half sae stout,
But anis his stomach was asteir.^
was termed slogan or slughorn, and was always repeated at an
onset, as well as on many other occasions, as appears from the
following passage of an old author, whom this custom seems to
have offended — ^for he complains " That, whereas, alweys, both
in al tounes of war, and in al campes of armies, quietnes and
stilnes without nois is principally in the night, after the watch
is set, observed (I need not reason why.) Yet, our northern
prikkers, the Borderers, notwithstanding, with great enormitie, (as
thought me,) and not urdyke (to be playn) unto a masterless
hounde houyling in a hie wey, when he hath lost him he wayted
upon, sum hoopying, sum whistelyng, and most with crying, a
JBericyke ! a JBeriryke ! a Fenivyke ! a Fenwyke ! a Jitdmer ! a
Sulmer ! or so ootherwise as their captein's names wear, never
linnde those troublous and dangerous noyses all the night long.
They sayd they chd it to fynd out their captein and fellowes ; but
if the soldiours of our oother countries and sheres had used the same
maner, in that case we shoold have oftymes had the state of our
campe more lyke the outrage of a dissolute huntyng, than the quiet
of a wel ordred army." — Patten's Account of Somersefs Expe-
dition, p. 76 Apud Dalyell's Fragments. Honest Patten
proceeds, with great prolixity, to prove, that this was a custom
more honoured in the breach than in the observance ; and, like
FlueUen, declares, " that such idle pribble-prabbles were contrary
to all the good customs and disciplines of war. " Nevertheless, the
custom of crying the slogan, or ensenzie, is often alluded to in aU
our ancient histories and poems. It was usually the name of the
clan, or place of rendezvous, or leader. In 1335, the English,
led by Thomas of Rosslyne, and William ISIoubray, assaulted Aber-
deen. The former was mortally wounded in the onset ; and, as liis
followers were pressing forward, shouting " Rossly7ie ! Rosslyne /"
' ' Cry Moidtray, " said the expiring cloieftian ; ' ' Rosslyne is gone ! "
The Higliland clans had also their appropriate slogans. The Mac-
(lonalds cried Frich, (heather;) the Macphersons, Craig- Ubhj
the Grants, Craig-Elachie ; and the Macfarlanes, Locli-Sloy.
' Bid, Sfc — Till once his anger was set up.
THE SCOTTISH BCRBER. '27
With gun and genzie,^ bow and speir,
Men might see mony a cracked crown !
But up amang- the merchant geir,
They were as busy as we were down.
The swallow taill frae tackles flew,"
Five hundredth llain^ into a flight.
But we had pestelets enew,
And shot among them as we might.
With help of God the game gaed right,
Fra time the foremost of them fell ;
Then ower the know, without goodnight,
They ran with mony a shout and yell.
But after they had turned l^acks.
Yet Tindail men they turn'd again.
And had not been the merchant packs,*
^ Genzie — Engine of war.
^ The Scots, on tliis occasion, seem to have had cliiefly fire-
arms ; the Enghsh retaining still their partiality for their ancient
T.'eapon, the longbow. It also appears, by a letter from the Duke
of Norfolk to Cecil, that the English Borderers were unskilful in
fire-arms, or, as he says, " our countrymen be not so commyng
with shots as I woolde wishe." — See Murdin's State Papers, vol.
i. p. 319.
^ Flain — Arrows ; hitherto absurdly printed slain.
* The ballad-maker here ascribes the victory to the real cause ;
for the English Borderers dispersing to plunder the merchandise,
gave the opposite party time to recover from their surprise. It
seems to have been usual for travelling merchants to attend Border
meetings, although one would have thought the kind of company
usually assembled there might have deterred them.
28 MINSTRELSY OF
There had been mae of Scotland slain.
But, Jesu ! if the folks were fain
To put the bussing- on their thies ;
And so they fled, wi' a' their main,
Down ower the brae, like clog-g-ed bees.
Sir Francis RusselF ta'en was there.
And hurt, as we hear men rehearse ;
Proud Walhnton" was wounded sair,
Albeit he be a Fennick lierce.
But if ye wald a souldier search.
Among- them a' were ta'en that nig'ht.
Was nane sae wordie to put in verse.
As Collingwood,^ that courteous knight.
^ This gentleman was son to the Earl of Bedford, and Warden
of the East Marches. He was, at tliis time, chamberlain of Ber-
wick. He was afterwards killed in a fray of a similar nature, at a
Border meeting between the same Sir John Forster, (father-in-law
to Russell) and Thomas Ker of Fairnihurst, A. D. 1585.
^ Fenwick of Wallington, a powerful Northumbrian chief.
^ Sir Cuthbert CoUingwood of Esslington, Sheriif of Northum-
berland, the 10th and 20th of EUzabeth. [The late gallant Ad-
miral Lord CoUingwood was oftliis family.] Besides these gentle-
men, James Ogle, and many other Northumbrians of note, were
made prisoners. Sir George Heron, of Cliipchase and Ford, was
slain, to the great regret of both parties, being a man highly es-
teemed by the Scots as well as the English. When the prisoners
were brought to Morton, at Dalkeith, and among other presents,
received from him some Scottish falcons, one of his traiin observed,
that the English were nobly treated, since they got live hawks for
dead heroris. — Godscroft.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 29
Young- Henry Schafton, ^ he is hurt ;
A souldier shot him wi' a bow ;
Scotland has cause to mak great sturt,
For laiming of the Laird of Mow.-
The Laird's Wat did weel indeed ;
His friends stood stouthe by himsell,
With Uttle Gladstain, gude in need,
For Gretein^ kend na gude be ill.
The Sheriife wanted not gude will,
Howbeit he might not fight so fast ;
Beanjeddart, Hundiie, and Hunthill,^
Three, on they laid weel at the last.
^ Tlie Shaftoes are an ancient family settled at Bavington, in
Northumberland, siace the time of Edward I. ; of which Sir Cuth-
bert Shaftoe, Sheriff of NorthumberL- id in 1795, is the present
representative.
^ An ancient family on the Borders. The lands of IMo^ve are
situated upon the river Bowmont, in Roxburghshire. The family
is now represented by William Blolle, Esq. of IMains, who has re-
stored the ancient speUing of the name. The Laird of Mowe here
mentioned, was the only gentleman of note killed in the skirmish
on the Scottish side.
^ Graden, a family of Kers.
^ Douglas of Beanjeddart, an ancient branch of the house of Ca-
vers, possessuig property near the junction of the Jed and Teviot.
Hundiie. — Rutherford of Hundhe, or Hundalee, situated on the
Jed above Jedburgh. Hunthill The old tower of HunthUl was
situated about a mile above Jedburgh. It was the patrimony of an
ancient family of Rutherfords. I suppose the person, here meant,
to be the same who is renowned in tradition by the name of the
Cock of Hunthill. His sons v^^ere executed for March-treason, or
Border-theft, along with the Lairds of Corbet, Greenhead, and
Overton, A. D. 1588 — Johnstone's History, p. 129.
30 MINSTRELSY OF
Except the horsemen of the guard,
If I could put men to availe,
None stoutlier stood out for their laird,
Nor did the lads of Liddisdail.
But little harness had we there ;
But auld Badreule^ had on a jack,
And did right weel, I you declare,
With all his Trumbills at his back.
Gude Edderstane^ was not to lack,
Nor Kirktoun, Newton, noble men P
* Sir Andrew Turnbull of Bedrule, upon Rule Water. This old
laird was so notorious a tliief, that the principal gentlemen of the
clans of Hume and Kerr refused to sign a bond of alliance, to
which he, with the Turnbulls and Rutherfords, was a party ; alle-
ging that their proposed allies had stolen Hume of Wedderburn's
cattle. The authority of IMorton, however, compelled them to di-
gest the aifront. The debate (and a curious one it is) may be seen
at length in Godscroft, vol. i. p. 221. The Rutherfords became
more lawless after having been deprived of the countenance of the
court, for slaying the nephew of Forman, Archbishop of St An-
drews, who had attempted to carry off the heiress of Rutherford.
This lady was afterwards married to James Stuart of Traquair, son
to James, Earl of Buchan, according to a papal bull, dated 9tli No-
vember, 1504. By tlus lady a great estate in Teviotdale fell to
the family of Traquair, which was sold by James, Earl of Tra-
quair, Lord High -Treasurer of Scotland, in consequence of the pe-
cuniary cUfficulties to which he was reduced, by his loyal exertions
in favour of Charles I.
^ An ancient family of Rutherfords ; I believe, indeed, the most
ancient now extant. The family is represented by John Rvither-
ford, Esq. of Edgerstane. His seat is about three miles distant
from the field of battle.
^ £^irktown.^'Ih.Q parish of Kirktoun belonged, I believe, about
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 31
Thir's all the specials I of speake,
By others that I could not ken.^
Who did invent that day of play,
We need not fear to find him soon ;
For Sir John Forster, I dare well say,
Made us this noisome afternoon.
Not that I speak preceislie out,
That he supposed it would be perril ;
But pride, and breaking- out of feuid,
Garr'd Tindaill lads begin the quarrel.-
tlus time, to a branch of the Cavers family ; but Kirkton of Stewart-
field is mentioned in the list of Border clans in 1597. Neu-to7i. —
This is probably Grinyslaw of Little Newton, mentioned in the said
roll of Border clans.
^ Thirds — These are. J5i/ — Besides.
^ In addition to what has been said of the ferocity of the Reeds-
dale and Tynedale men, may be noticed a by-law of the incor-
porated jMerchant-adventurers of Newcastle, in 1564, which, al-
leging evil repute of these districts for thefts and felonies, enacts,
that no apprentices shall be taken " proceeding from such leude
and wicked progenitors." This law, though in desuetude, subsisted
until 1771.
32 MINSTRELSY OF
KINMONT WILLIE.
In the following rude strains, our forefathers comme-
morated one of the last and most gallant achievements
performed upon the Border. The Editor, in place of
the extract from Bishop Spottiswoode's History of the
Church, is enabled, from a manuscript of the period, the
property of Mr Campbell of Shawfield, to give a more
minute detail of this celebrated exploit. The MS.
contains many curious articles relating to the High-
lands and Borders, arranged in a miscellaneous order.
They appear to have been a collection made for the
purpose of assisting Archbishop Spottiswoode in com-
piling his work.
" Relation of the Maner of SurjJrizeing of the Castell of Cair-
lell, by the Lord of Biiccleugh, in the later End of Q. Eli-
zabeth's Reigne. (Ajmo 1596.)
" Thair was for the tyme Warden of the West
Marches of England, for the Queene, the Lord Scroope ;^
' [Thomas, Lord Scroope, of Bolton, T^•as appointed Warden of
these Marches in 1593.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 33
and for the King-, the Lord of Bucclengii had the charge
of Liddisdail ; the deputies of these two officers having-
met at a day at tre^^is, as the cnstome was, (when
either the Wardens, in regard of their princes service,
or thair ain private distractionnes, could not meitt
thameselffis, or the matteris to be redressit w^as hot
ordinarie,) the place of thair melting- was at the Day-
holme of Kershoiip, quhaire a burne divides England
from Scotland, and Liddisdaill from Bewcastle. Thair
met for the Lord of Bu'cclengh, lioljert Scott of Ha-
nyng- ; and for the Lord Scroope, Mr Salkeld, a gen-
tleman of that west wardanrie, that was his deputie for
the tyme. Thair was mutnall truce taken, and intima-
tion be sound of trumpett, and proclamation in thair
Majesties names, to the trouppes on both sydes, befoir
thair melting-, as the custome was : wherefore the melt-
ings war called dayes of trewis, seeing thairthrow pair-
ties on baithe sydes, that otherwise were under deidlie
feid and quarrell, did usuallie, in peace and assurance,
melt and doe thair busines, one besyde another, and
conversed mutuallie and in assurance with such as they
had occasion withall ; upon the truce taken, the officers
or deputies keipt thair meitting, made mutuall redress
of such wrongs as had occurred before that tyme, and
sunderit in verie good termes, ether partie returning
homewards. Be the way it is to be remembered, that
the tenor of such trewis as usuallie were taken betuixt
the wardaines or thair deputies in the princes names
buir, That upon paine of death presently to be execu-
VOL. II. c.
34 MINSTRELSY OP
ted, all persones whatsoever that came to these meit-
ing'S, soiild be saife fra any proceiding- or present occa-
sioun, from the tyme of meiting- of the wardens or thair
deputies, till the nixt day at the sun rysing- ; within
such space it wes presupposed that every j)ersone that
came thair might be returned to thair houses ; for other
wayes, where at theiff meitings ther war usualiie manie
pairties that war under feid and quarrall ane Avith an-
other, the strongest syde might have taken advantage
of the weakness of the other, if the grudge had Jbeine
betuixt the wardanes ; or the strongest of the particu-
lar pairties of ether syde might, seing- the weiknes of
the other there, in his returne homewards towards his
hous, fra the great troupe had sunderit, upon any in-
telligence, have taken the occasioun of revenge by
putting himselfe in his vv'ay. Now this treuce, being-
thus wayes parted, and the busines done by the depu-
ties that they met for, there was one called Williame
Armstronge of Kyninmonth, Scottisman, and a Bor-
derer, in companie with the Scottish deputie, whom
against some of the English had quarell, as was alled-
geit, who, being sunderit from that deputie, and ryding-
homewards, his way coming down Liddisdaill, the
which was at that pairt dy vidit from England by a river
easilie passable, called Liddell, and the Ingiish deputie
halding his way down the Ingiish syde, and within a
myle of the utheris way, those who had the quarrell
against hym, (as afterwards the deputie of England for
his excuse did pretend,) seing him ryding on his ways
bot with three or four in companie, and lyming for na
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 35
harme, as that day fell, they brake a chace of more than
200 men out of the English trayne, chases the said Wm.
of Eaninmonth more than 3 or 4 myles, comes to him,
and takes him prisoner, brings him back to the deputie,
thinking- to doe good service by the seizing- of such an
offendar, causit brek the truce, himself caried him away
with him prisoner to the castell of Cairlell. Where-
upon, seing- the samyne was done to the plaine breache
of the trewes, the Lord of Buccleugh, as the Kingis
officer, did wreat unto Mr Salkeld, the deputie of
England, immediatlie in absence of the Lord Scroop,
for the redress thairof. Mr Salkeld by his anser did
excuise himselfe, and refer the maitter to the Lord
Scroop, warden, who for the tyme was at a hous of his
owin in the countrey. The Lord Scroop thereupon
was written unto in the samyne sence by the Lord of
Buccleugh, to wit, for the setting- the prisoner at liber-
tie without condition or bond, seing he was unlawful-
lie taken, and consequentlie to the tuitch of the king-
It was ansered, that he could do nothing ther anent,
seing it was so hapned, and be reason that the prisoner
was such a malefactor, without the privitie of the
Queue and counsall of England : so as his anser tend-
ing- to the delay of the matter, the Lord Buccleugh
being loath to informe the Kinge of the maitter least
the samyn might have bred some mistaking betueeii
the princes, he made tryell for Mr Robert Bowis, then
resident ambassador for the Queen in Scotland ; who,
upon his desire and informatioun, wrote furiouslie unta
• 36 MINSTRELSY OF
the Lord Scroope for the redress of the maitter, and
that the maitter sould come to no farther hearing-. No-
thing- was done nor anserit till a purpose nevertheless,
nether upon the Kingis his masters awin instance to-
wards the warden, ])y the amliassador of England first,
and afterwards to the Queen of England by his Majes-
ties selfe. Whereupon the Lord of Buccleugh, being-
the Kings officer, and fynding- his Majesties honour
tuitched so apparentlie to the world, he did resolve him-
selfe to seik the reliefe of the prisoner by the meanes
whereby it was performeit, and that with such foirsight
and regaird as could be, that through any rigorous cir-
cumstance of the actioun, in regaird of the place quhairin
he was keipit, the samyne sould breid no greater jarr
betuixt the princes then mearlie that which was to grow
from the simple reliefe of a prisoner unlawfullie taken.
And for such purpose the Lord of Buccleugh, upon
intelligence that the Castle of Cairleill, where the pri-
soner was keept, was surpriseal^le, and of the meaner,
by sending some persons of trust to view a postern gaitt,
and to measure the height of the wall very closely, he
did immediately draw togither 200 horse, assured the
place of meeting ane hour before sunset at the toure of
Mortoune, the which is 10 myles from Cairleill, and
upon the water of Sark, in the Debateable Land, quhair
he had preparatioun of ledders for scaleing the castle
wall, and other instruments of iron for breking through
the wall and foirceing of gaites, if neid had beine. The
troupe being assembled at the place, he marcheth foP-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 3?
-^-ards, and entretli English ground within six miles of
Cairleill, and passeth the water of Esk, qnhair the
Grahames did inhabite, at the falling- of the nig-ht. Fra
he entred Engdish ground, the order was thus : ther
was sent some few horsmen before, all the way, to dis-
cover, and they were seconded by 40 or 50 horse in
case of any encounter ; there was nixt them the led-
(lers carrying- two and two upon a horse, and horses
carying- the other instruments mentionate befoir ; and,
last of all, himselfe with the reste of the troupe. He
marched on in this order, and passeth the water of
Eden about two hours before day, at the Stoniebank
beneath Cairleill brig-, the water being- at the tyme,
threugh raines that had fallen, weill thick ; he comes
to the Sacray, a plaine place under the tonne and cas-
t-ell, and halts upon the syde of a litle water or burne
that they call Caday. There he makes about 80 men
to light from their horses, took the ledders to be set to
the wall, and assayes, whilst the sentinels warns the
top of the wall above thame, looking- over, and crying;
and speaking- ane to another ; but that it hapened to
fall to be very dark in the hindnight, and a litle mistie.
The ledders proved too short thro' the error of thame
quha had bene sent to measure the wall, and could not
reach the top of the wall ; and then order was given to
make use of the other instruments that were caried, for
opening the wall a little, hard by the posterne, the
which being set in the way, the Lord of Buccleug-h
seing- the mater was likelie to succeed well, and that no
38 MINSTRELSY OF
tliscoverie was, did retier liimselfe for tlie suretie of
thame that he had set on the castell against the force -
ing of the toun, and so pat himselfe and the horsemen
l)etwixt the posterne of the castell and the nixt port of
the tonne, npon the plaine field, to assure the retreat of
his awin from the castell againe, wha were sent also in
such competent number as was knowne to be able to
master thame that was within, upon their entrie ; quha
did thereupon also correspond upon the first sound of
the trumpet, with a cry and noyse, the more to confirme
his awne that ware gone upon the castell, and to terrifie
hoth castell and toune by ane imaginatioun of a greater
force. They enter the castell, the first of thame single,
by the overture that was made, and than brake oppen
immediatelie the posterne with such instruments as was
iitt to mak passage to the greater number. Thair did
occur to theme, at their tirste entrie, allannerlie the
watchmen or sentinells, and some others after upon the
alarm, with the weapons they had. Bot after they were
put back and scattered, the rest that was within doors
heiring the noyse of the trumpet within, and that the
castell was entered, and the noyse of others without,
both the Lord Scroope himselfe and his dej^uty Salkeld
l^eing thair with the garrisone and his awin retinew,
did keip thamselflfis close. The jorisoner was taken out
of the hous quhair he was keiped, the which was knowne
ta the Lord of Buccleuch, his sending a woman upon,
pretext the day befoir to visite the prisoner, quha re-
_porting quhat place he was keiped in, ther lacked not
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 39
persones enough tliaire that knew all the rewmes thaire,
and so went directlie after the rencounter with the
watchmen, and sum other with them that came to the
alarum to the place, and brought him furth, and so be
the posterne gat away ; some other prisoners were
brought out that were taken in the rancounter, the
which were presentlie returned into the castell againe
by the Lord of Buccleugh, and any uther spoylle or
butting also hinderit, that not so much as any uther
doore that was opin within the castell was entered but
that quhair the prisoner was, the which was broken up ;
nor uther that was shut so much as knocket at, tho'
they that enterit might have taken prisoners the war-
den and all the prisoners that was there, and made prey
of the haill guids, seing they war maisters of the cas-
tell ; such was the reguard of the Lord of Buccleughe,
and the strict order that he gave, being present him-
selfe, that he walde not have any circumstance to fall
out in that action, in sua farr as it could have bene
eschewed, that could have given the least cause of
offence either to the King his master or to the late
Queen. By which bringing furth of the prisoner the
toun and castell was in a great fear and alarum, and
was a putting of thameselffis in armes ; drums war
beatting, belles ringing, and bealles put on the top of
the castell to warne the countrie. The day was brok-
kin, and so the interpryse having so weill succeidit, the
Lord of Buccleugh, after that these [that] went upon
the castell, and the prisoner, were reteired and horsedj
40 MINSTRELSY OF
marched close by the Sarkage againe to the river at the
Stainiebank ; where upon the alarum in the castell and
toune, some were assembled in the farre syde in the
passage ; and so having- to that tyme reteired himselfe
close and without any noyse from the castell, he causit
sound up his trumpet befoir he tuik the river, it being-
both mistie and dark, though the day was brokin, to
the end both to encourage his owne, and to let thame
that war abyding- him upon the joassage know that he
luikit for and was [ready] to receave any charg-e that
they sould offer him ; quhairupon they made choyse to
luik to him and give him way, and not adventure upon
so doul^tfull ane event with him, wha behoved to reteire
him homewards, and not living- thaire, if he could
choyse, after such ane useage of his hoist. So having-
past the river, the day began to grow light, and he did
reteire himselfe in order throw the Grahames of Esk
and Levin, and came back to Scottis ground at about
two hours after sunrysing, and so homewards."
The consequences of the enterprise are thus men-
tioned by Spottiswoode : —
" This fell out the 1 3th of April, 1 596. The Queen
of England, having notice sent her of what was done,
stormed not a little. One of her chief castles surprised,
a prisoner taken forth of the hands of the warden, and
carried away, so far within England, she esteemed a
great affront. The lieger, ^ Mr Bowes, in a frequent
^ Lieger — Ambassador.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 41
convention kept at Edinl^urgii, the 22d of May, did, as
he was charged, in a long oration, aggravate the hein-
ousness of the fact, conchiding that peace could not
longer continue betwixt the two realms, unless Bacleuch
were delivered in England, to ])e punished at the Queen's
pleasure. Bacleuch compearing, and charged with the
fact, made answer, — ' That he went not into England
with intention to assault any of the Queen's houses, or
to do wrong to any of her sul)jects, but only to relieve
a subject of Scotland unlawfully taken, and more un-
lawfully detained ; that, in the time of a general assu-
rance, in a day of truce, he was taken prisoner against
all order, neither did he attempt his relief till redress
was refused ; and that he had carried the business in
such a moderate manner, as no hostility was committed,
nor the least wrong offered to any within the castle ;
yet was he content, according to the ancient treaties
observed betwixt the two realms, when as mutual in-
juries were alleged, to be tried by the commissioners
that it should please their Majesties to appoint, and
submit himself to that which they should decern.' —
The convention, esteeming the answer reasonable, did
acquaint the ambassador therewith, and offered to send
commissioners to the Borders, with all diligence, to
treat with such as the Queen should be pleased to ap-
point for her part.
" But she, not satisfied with the answer, refused to
appoint any commissioners ; whereupon the council of
England did renew the complaint in July thereafter ;
42 MINSTRELSY OP
and the business being- of new agitated, it was resolved
of as before, and that the same should be remitted to
the trial of commissioners ; the King- protesting, ' that
he might, with great reason, crave the delivery of Lord
Scroope, for the injury committed by his deputy, it
being less favourable to take a prisoner, than relieve
him that is unlawfully taken ; yet, for the continuing*
of peace, he would forbear to do it, and omit nothing,
on his part, that could be desired, either in equity, or
by the laws of friendship.' — The Borders, in the mean-
time, making daily incursions one upon another, filled
all their parts with trouble, the English being conti-
nually put to the worse ; neither were they made quiet,
till, for satisfying the Queen, the Laird of Bacleuch
was first committed in St Andrews, and afterwards
entered in England, where he remained not long." ^ — -
Spottiswoode's History of the Cliurch of Scotland^
pp. 414, 416, £'c/. 1677.
Scott of Satchells, in the extraordinary poetical per-
formance, which he has been pleased to entitle A His-
tory of the Name of Scott, (published 1688,) dwells,
with great pleasure, upon this gallant achievement, at
which, it would seem, his father had been present. He
^ The Bisliop is, in tills last particular, ratlier inaccurate. Buc-
cleuch was indeed delivered into England, but tliis was done in
consequence of the judgment of commissioners of both nations, who
i-net at Berwick the same year. And liis dehvery took place, less
oa account of the raid of Carlisle, than of a second exploit of the
same nature, to be noticed hereafter.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 43
also mentions, tliat the Laird of Buccleuch employed
the services of the yonng-er sons and brothers only of
his clan, lest the name should have been weakened by
the landed men incurring- forfeiture. But he adds, that
three g-entlemen of estate insisted upon attending- their
chief, notwithstanding' this prohibition. These were,
the Lairds of Harden and Commonside, and Sir Gil-
bert Elliot of the Stobbs, a relation of the Laird of
Buccleuch, and ancestor to the present Sir William
Elliot, Bart. Li many things Satchells ag-rees with
the ballads current in his time, from which, in all pro-
bability, he derived most of his information as to past
events, and from which he sometimes pirates whole
verses, as noticed in the annotations upon the Raid
of the Reidswire. In the present instance, he men-
tions the prisoner's large spurs, (alluding- to the fetters,)
and some other little incidents noticed in the ballad,,
which were, therefore, probably well known in his days.
All contemporary historians unite in extolling- the
deed itself as the most daring; and well-conducted
achievement of that ag-e. " Audax facinus, cum mo-
dica manu, in urbe mcenihus et multitudine oppida-
norum munita, et callidce audacice, vix ullo ohsisti
modo potidtV — Johnstoni Historia, Ed. Amstcel.
p. 215. Birrel, in his gossiping- way, says, the ex-
ploit was performed " with shouting- and crying-, and
sound of trumpet, puttand the said toun and countrie
in sic ane fray, that the like of sic ane wassaladge was
never done since the memory of man, no not in Wal*
44 MINSTRELSY OF
lace dayis." — Birrel's Diary, April 6, 1596. This
good old citizen of Edinburgh also mentions another
incident, which I think proper to insert here, both
as relating to the personages mentioned in the follow-
ing ballad, and as tending- to show the light in which
the men of the Border were regarded, even at this late
period, by their fellow-sul)jects. The author is talking
of the King's return to Edinlmrgh, after the disgrace
which he had sustained there, during- the riot excited
by the seditious ministers, on December 17? 1596.
Proclamation had been made, that the Earl of Mar
should keep the West Port, Lord Seaton the Nether-
Bow, and Buccleuch, with sundry others, the High
Gate. " Upon the morn at this time, and befoir this
day, there was ane grate rumour and word among the
tounes-men, that the Kinges M. sould send in Will
Kinmonde, the common thieffe, and so many south-
lande men as sould spulyie the toun of Edinburgh.
Upon the whilk, the haill merchants tuik their hail
gear out of their buiths or chops, and transportit the
same to the strongest hous that was in the toune, and
remained in the said hous, thair, with thameselfis, thair
servants, and luiking for nothing bot that thaye sould
have been all spulyeit. Sic lyke the hail craftsmen and
commons convenit themselfis, their best guidis, as it
wer ten or twelve householdes in ane, whilk wes the
strongest hous, and might be best kepit from spuilyeing
or burning, with hagbut, pistolet, and other sic armour,
as might best defend themselfis. Judge, gentil reader.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 45
giff this was playing-." The fear of the Borderers being-
thus before the eyes of the contumacious citizens of
Edinburgh, James obtained a quiet hearing for one of
his favourite orisons, or harangues, and was finally en-
abled to prescribe terms to his fanatic metropolis. Good
discipline was, however, maintained by the chiefs upon
this occasion ; although the fears of the inhabitants
were but too well grounded, considering what had hap-
pened in Stirling ten years before, when the Earl of
Angus, attended by Home, Buccleuch, and other Bor-
der chieftains, marched thither to remove the Earl of
Arran from the King's councils : the town was mi-
serably pillaged by the Borderers, particularly by a
party of Armstrongs, under this very Kinmont Willie,
who not only made prey of horses and cattle, but even
of the very iron grating of the windows — Johnstoni
Historia, p. 102, Ed. Amstael. — Moyse's Memoir Sy
p. 100.
The renown of Kinmont Willie is not surprising-,
since, in 1587, the apprehending that freebooter, and
Robert Maxwell, natural brother to the Lord Max-
well, was the main, but unaccomplished, object of a
royal expedition to Dumfries. Ilex .... Robertum
Maxvcdlium . . . . et Guliehnum Armstrangum Kin-
ononthum latrociniis intestinis externisque famosurny,
conquiri juhet. Missi e mi7iisterio regio qui "per as-
pei'a loca vitabundos persequuntur, magnoque incom-
inodo afficiunt. At illi latebris aid si/vis se eripiunty
' — Johnstoni Historia,-p. 138. About this time, it is
46 MINSTRELSY OF
possible that Kinmont Willie may have held some
connexion with the Maxwells, though afterwards a re-
tainer to Buccleuch, the enemy of that tribe. At
least, the Editor finds, that, in a bond of manrent,
g-ranted by Simon Elliot of Whytheuch, in Liddesdale,
to Lord Maxwell, styled therein Earl of Morton,
dated February 28, 1599, William Armstrong, called
JVill of Kinmond, appears as a witness — Syme's
JISS. According- to Satchells, this freebooter was
^descended of Johne Armstrong- of Gilnockie. (See
JBallad, p, 392 vol. i.) — Est in juvencis, est et in
equis, patrwn virtus. In fact, his rapacity made his
very name proverbial. Mas James Melvine, in urging-
reasons against subscribing the act of supremacy, in
1584, asks ironically, " Who shall take order with
Tice and wickedness ? The court and bishops ? As
well as Martine Elliot, and Will of Eanmont, with
stealing upon the Borders !" — Calderwood, p. 168.
This affair of Kinmont Willie was not the only oc-
casion upon which the undaunted keeper of Liddesdale
gave offence to the haughty Elizabeth. For, even
before this business was settled, certain of the English
Borderers having invaded Liddesdale, and wasted the
country, the Laird of Buccleuch retaliated the injury
by a raid into England, in which he not only brought
off much spoil, but apprehended thirty-six of the Tyne-
dale thieves, all of whom he put to death Spottis-
wooDE; p. 450. How highly the Queen of England's
resentment blazed on this occasion, may be judged from
THE SCOTTISH BORDEE. 47
the preface to her letter to Bowes, then her ambassador
in Scotland. " I wonder how base-minded that ICing-
thinks me, that, with patience, I can digest this dis-
honourable *******. Let him know, therefore,
that I will have satisfaction, or else ****** *."
These broken words of ire are inserted betwixt the sub-
scription and the address of the letter. — Rymer, voL
xyI. p. 318. Indeed, so deadly v/as the resentment
of the English, on account of the affronts put upon
them by tl^s formidable chieftain, that there seems at
one time to have been a plan formed (not, as was al-
leged, without Elizabeth's privity) to assassinate Buc-
cleuch — Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 107. The matter was
at length arranged by the commissioners of both na-
tions in Berwick, by whom it was agreed that delin-
quents should be delivered up on both sides, and that
the chiefs themselves should enter into ward in the
opposite countries till these were given up, and pledges
granted for the future maintenance of the quiet of the
Borders. Buccleuch and Sir Robert Ker of Cessford
(ancestor of the Duke of Roxburghe) appear to have
struggled hard against complying with this regulation ;
so much so, that it required all James's authority to
bring to order these two powerful cliiefs Rymer, vol.
xvi. p. 322 Spottiswoode, p. 448. — Carey's
Memoirs, p. 131, et sequen. — When at length they
appeared, for the purpose of delivering themselves up
to be warded at Berwick, an incident took place, which
nearly occasioned a revival of the deadly feud which
48 MINSTRELSY OF
formerly subsisted between the Scotts and the Kers,
Buccleuch had chosen, for his guardian, during- his resi-
dence in England, Sir William Selby, master of the
ordnance at Berwick, and accordingly gave himself into
his hands. Sir Robert Ker was about to do the same,
when a pistol was discharged by one of his retinue,
and the cry of treason was raised. Had not the Earl
of Home been present, with a party of Mersemen, to
preserve order, a dreadful tumult would probably have
ensued. As it was, the English commissioners returned
in dismay to Berwick, much disposed to wreak their
displeasure on Buccleuch ; and he, on his side, mortally
offended with Cessford, by whose means, as he con-
ceived, he had been placed in circumstances of so much
danger. Sir Robert Ker, however, appeased all par-
ties, by delivering himself up to ward in England ; on
which occasion he magnanimously chose for his guar-
dian Sir Robert Carey, Deputy-warden of the East
Marches, notwithstanding various causes of animosity
which existed betwixt them. The hospitality of Carey
equalled the generous confidence of Cessford, and a firm
friendship was the consequence.^ Buccleuch appears
* Such traits of generosity Illuminate the dark period of which
we treat. Carey's conduct on this occasion almost atones for the
cold and unfeeling policy with which he watched the closing mo-
ments of his benefactress, Elizabeth, impatient till remorse and
sorrow should extort her last sigh, that he might lay the foundation
of liis future favour with her successor, by carrying liim the first
tidings of her death Carey's Memoirs, p, 172, et sequen. It
svould appear that Sir Robert Ker was soon afterwards committed
1
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 49
to have remained in England from October, 1597, till
February, 1598. — Johnstoni Historia, p. 231
Spottiswoode, ut supra. According- to ancient family
tradition, Buccleuch was presented to Elizabeth, who,
with her usual rough and peremptory address, demand-
ed of him, " how he dared to undertake an enterprise
so desperate and presumptuous ? " — ^' Wliat is it," an-
swered the undaunted chieftain, — "what is it that a man
dares not do ? " Elizabeth, struck with the reply, turned
to a lord in waiting- ; " With ten thousand such men,"
to tlie custody of tlie Arclibisliop of York ; for tliere is extant a
letter from tliat prelate to the lord-treasurer, desiring instructions
about tlie mode of keeping tliis noble bostage. " I understand,"
saith be, " tbat tbe gentleman is wise and valiant, but somewbat
taugbty bere, and resolute. I would pray your lordsbip, tbat I
may bave directions wbetber be may not go witb bis keeper in my
company, to sermons ; and wbetber be may not sometimes dine
witb tbe council, as tbe last bostages did ; and, tbirdly, wbetber be
may sometimes be brougbt to sitting to tbe common-ball, where be
may see bow careful ber Majesty is tbat tbe poorest subject in ber
kingdom may bave tbeir right, and that ber people seek remedy by
law, and not by avenging themselves. Perhaps it may do him
good as long as he hveth." — Strype's Aimals, ad annum 1597.
It would appear from this letter, tbat the treatment of tbe hostages
was hberal ; though one can hardly suppress a smile at tbe zeal of
the good bishop for tbe conversion of tbe Scottish chieftain to a
more Christian mode of tliinking than was common among tbe
Borderers of tbat day. The date is February 25, 1597, which is
somewhat difficult to reconcile with those given by tbe Scottish
historians. Another letter follows, stating, tbat Sir Robert, ha-
■ving been used to open air, prayed for more bberty for his health's
sake, " oflfering his word, which, it is said, he doth chiefly regard,
that he would be true prisoner." — STRxrE, ibid.
VOL. II. D
50 MINSTRELSY OF
said she, " our brother of Scotland might shake the
firmest throne of Em'ope." Luckily, perhaps, for the
murderess of Queen Mary, James's talents did not lie
that way.
The articles, settled by the commissioners at Ber-
wick, were highly favourable to the peace of the Bor-
der. They may be seen at larg-e in the Border Lawsy
p. 103. By article sixth, all wardens and keepers are
discharged from seeking- reparation of injuries, in the
ancient hostile mode of riding-, or causing- to ride, in
warlike manner against the opposite March ; and that
under the highest penalty, unless authorized by a war-
rant under the hand of their Sovereig-n. The mention
of the word keeper alludes obviously to the above-men-
tioned reprisals, made by Buccleuch, in the capacity of
keeper of Liddesdale.
This ballad is preserved, by tradition, on the West
Borders, but much mangled by reciters ; so that some
conjectural emendations have been absolutely necessary
to render it intelligible. In particular, the Eden has
been substituted for the Eske, p. 56, the latter name
being- inconsistent with g-eography.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 51
KINMONT WILLIE.
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
O HAVE ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde ?^
O have ye na heard o' the keen Lord Scroope ?
' The Salkeldes, or Sakeldes, were a powerful family in Cum-
berland, possessing, among other manors, that of Corby, before it
■came into the possession of the Howards, in the beginning of the
seventeenth century. A strange stratagem was practised by an
outlaw, called Jock Grseme of the Peartree, upon Mr Salkolde,
Sheriff of Cumberland ; who is probably the person alluded to in
the baUad, as the fact is stated to have happened late in Elizabeth's
time. The brother of this freebooter was lying in Carlisle jail for
execution, when Jock of the Peartree came riding past the gate of
Corby Castle. A child of the sheriff was playing before the door,
to whom the outlaw gave an apple, saying, " Master, wiU you ride ? "
The boy willingly consenting, Grame took him up before him, ear-
ned him into Scotland, and would never part with him, till he had
his brother safe from the gallows. There is no historical ground
for supposing, either that Salkelde, or any one else, lost his life in
the raid of Carhsle.
52 MINSTRELSY OF
How tliey hae ta'en ])aiild Kinmont Willie/
On Haribee to hang- him up ? ^
Had Willie had but twenty men,
But twenty men as stout as he,
Pause Sakekle had never the Kinmont ta'en,
Wi' eight score in his cumpanie.
They band his legs beneath the steed,
They tied his hands behind his back ;
They guarded him, fivesome on each side.
And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack.
They led him thro' the Liddel-rack,
And also thro' the Carlisle sands ;
They brought him to Carlisle castell,
To be at my Lord Scroope's commands.
*' My hands are tied, but my tongue is free^
And whae will dare this deed avow ?
Or answer by the Border lav/ ?
Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch ? " —
^In the list of Border clans, 1597, WiU of Kinmonth, v/ith
Xyrstie Armestrange, and Jolin Skynbanke, are mentioned as lead-
ers of a band of Armstrongs called Sandies Barnes, inhabiting the-
Debateable Land.
^ Haribee is tlie place of execution at Carlisle.
^ The Liddel-rack is a ford on the Liddel.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. bS
'' Now baud thy tongue, thou rank reiver !
There's never a Scot shall set thee free :
Before ye cross my castle yate,
I trow ye shall take farewell o' me."
" Fear na ye that, my lord," quo' Willie :
" By the faith o' my body, Lord Scroope," he said,
'• I never yet lodged in a hostelrie,^
But I paid my lawing-" before I gaed." —
Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper,
In Branksome Ha', where that he lay,
That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie,
Between the hours of night and day.
He has ta'en the table wi' his hand.
He garr'd the red wine spring on hie —
'^' Now Christ's curse on my head," he said,
" But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be I
•^ O is my basnet^ a widow's curch ?*
Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree ?
Or my arm a ladye's lilye hand.
That an English lord should lightly^ me I
" And have they ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,
Against the truce of Border tide ?
^Uostelrie — Inn. — - Lawing — Reckoning. — ^ Basnet—'Hehne.tm.
— ■* Curch — Coif. — ^ LigMhj — Set light by.
54 MINSTRELSY OF
And forgotten that the baiild Buccleuch
Is Keeper here on the Scottish side ?
" And have the.j e'en ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,,
Withouten either dread or fear ?
And forg-otten that the bauld Buccleuch
Can back a steed, or shake a spear ?
" O were there v/ar Ijetween the lands,
As well I wot that there is none,
I would slight Carlisle castell high,
Though it were builded of marble stone.
" I would set that castell in a low,^
And sloken it with English blood !
There's never a man in Cuml^erland,
Should ken where Carlisle castell stood.
" But since nae war's between the lands,
And there is peace, and peace should be ;
I'll neither harm English lad or lass.
And yet the Kinmont freed shall be ! "
He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld^
I trow they were of his ain name,
Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, call'd
The Laird of Stobs, I mean the same^
^ Zow — Flame.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 55
He lias call'd him forty Marclimen baiikl,
Were kinsmen to the bauld Bnccleuch ;
With spur on heel, and splent on spaiild,^
And gieuves of green, and feathers blue.
There were five and five ]:)efore them a',
Wi' hunting-horns and bugles liright :
And five and five came wi' Bnccleuch,
Lilve warden's men, array 'd for fight.
And five and five, like a mason gang-,
That carried the ladders lang- and hie ;
And five and five, like l)roken men ;
And so they reach'd the Woodhouselee.-
And as we cross'd the Rateable Land,
When to the English side we held,
The first o' men that we met wi',
Whae sould it be but fause Sakelde ?
*' Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen?"
Quo' fause Sakelde ; " come tell to me ! " —
ii "vye g-Q ^Q hunt an English stag-,
Has trespass'd on the Scots countrie."
" ^Vliere be ye g'aun, ye marshal men ? "
Quo' fause Sakelde ; " come tell me true I " —
' Splent on spatild — Armour on slaoulder.
^ Woodliouselec ; a house on tlie Border, belonsjius: to Buccleuch.
56 MINSTRELSY OF
a We g-o to catch a rank reiver,
Has broken faith wi' the baulcl Buccleuch."
" Wliere are ye gaun, ye mason lads,
Wi' a' your ladders, lang- and hie ? " —
" We gang to herry a corbie's nest,
That wons not far frae Woodhoiiselee." —
" Wliere be ye gaun, ye broken men ? "
Quo' fause Sakelde ; " come tell to me ! " —
Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band,
And the nevir a word of lear^ had he.
" Wliy trespass ye on the English side ?
Row-footed outlaws, stand ! " quo' he ;
The nevir a word had Dickie to say,
Sae he thrust the lance through his fause bodie.
Then on we held for Carlisle toun,
And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we cross'd ;
The water was great and meikle of spait, ~
But the nevir a horse nor man we lost.
And when we reach'd the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind was rising loud and hie ;
And there the Laird garr'd leave our steeds,
For fear that they should stamp and nie.
^ Lear — Lore ^ Spait — Flood,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 57
And when we left the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind began full loud to blaw ;
But 'twas wind and weet, and fire and sleet/
When we came beneath the castle wa'.
We crept on knees, and held our breath,
Till we placed the ladders against the wa' ;
And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell
To mount the first before us a'.
He has ta'en the watchman by the throat,
He flung him down upon the lead —
^' Had there not been peace between our lands,
Upon the other side thou hadst gaed ! —
^' Now sound out, trumpets !" quo' Buccleuch ;
" Let's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie ! " —
Then loud the warden's trumpet blew —
O ivha dare meddle mi me ? ~
Then speedilie to wark we gaed,
And raised the slog-an ane and a'.
And cut a hole through a sheet of lead,
And so we wan to the castle ha'.
They thought King* James and a' his men
Had won the house wi' bow and spear ;
1 [ Query — ," flyand (flying) sleet ?"] — - The name of a Border tune.
58 MINSTRELSY OF
It was but twenty Scots and ten,
That put a thousand in sic a stear I ^
Wi' coulters, and wi' forehammers,
We garr'd the bars bang- merrihe,
Until we came to the inner prison,
Wliere Wilhe o' Kinmont he did lie.
And when we cam to the lo^ver prison,
Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie —
" O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie,
Upon the morn that thou's to die ? " —
*' O I sleep saft," and I wake aft ;
It's lang- since sleeping- was lley\P frae me!
Gie my service back to my wife and Ijairns,
And a' gude fellows that spier* for me." —
Then Red Rowan has hente him up.
The starkest man in Teviotdale —
" Abide, abide now. Red Rowan,
Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.
*' Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope !
My gude Lord Scroope, farewell !" he cried —
*' I'll pay you for my lodging maill,^
When first we meet on the Border side." —
^ Stear — Stir.— ^ Saft—U^rU ^ JP/eyecZ—Frightened.
■* Speir — Inquire — ■' Ma'ill — Rent.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. W
Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
We bore him down the ladder lang- ;
At every stride Red Rowan made,
I wot the Kinmont's aims play'd clang- !
" O mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
" I have ridden horse ])aith wild and wood ;
But a rougher beast than Red Ro\\ an
I WTen my legs have ne'er bestrode.
*' And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
" I've prick'd a horse out oure the furs ;^
But since the day I back'd a steed,
I never wore sic cumbrous spurs I" — -
We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a' the Carlisle bells were rung-.
And a thousand men on horse and foot,
Cam wi' the keen Lord Scroope along-.
Buccleuch has turn'd to Eden Water,
Even where it tlow'd frae bank to Wun,
' Furs — Furrows.
^ [In many of the recitals, is a mixture of rough humour, whicli,
like the characterising touches of Hogarth's pencil, gives an anima-
tion often attempted in vain by more polished writers. Of this, the
ballad of Kinmont Willie aifords many examples, especially where
he is borne out of prison in irons on the shoulders of Red Rowan,
the starkest man in Teviotdale Stoddart, Ediuhurgh Review^
January, 1803.]
60
MINSTRELSY OF
And he has phmg-ed in wi' a' his band,
And safely swam them through the stream.
He turn'd him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroope his glove flung- he —
" If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me ! "
All sore astonish'd stood Lord Scroope,
He stood as still as rock of stane ;
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
When through the water they had g-ane.
" He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be ;
I wadna have ridden that wan water
For a' the gowd in Christentie."^
^ [" A cottage on tlie road side, between Longtoun and Lang-
holm, is still pointed out as tlie residence of the smith who was
employed to knock ofic Kinmont WiUie's irons, after his escape.
Tradition preserves the account of the smith's daughter, then a
chdd, how there was a sair clatter at the door about daybreak,
and loud crying for the smith ; but her father not being on the alert,
Buccleuch himself thrust his lance thro' the window, which effec-
tually bestirred him. On looldng out, the woman continued, she
saw, in the grey of the morning, more gentlemen than she had
ever before seen in one place, all on horseback, in armour, and
dripping wet — and that Kinmont WtUie, who sat vv'oman-fashioa
behind one of them, was the biggest carle she ever saw — and there
was much merriment in the company." — Sir Walter Scott's MS.
Letters. 1826.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 61
DICK O' THE COW
This ballad, and the two which immediately follow
it in the collection, were first published, 1784, in the
HaivicJc Museicm, a provincial miscellany, to which
they were communicated by John Elliot, Esq. of Reid-
heugh, a g-entleman well skilled in the antiquities of the
Western Border, and to whose friendly assistance the
Editor is indebted for many yaluable communications.
These ballads are connected with each other, and ap-
pear to have been composed by the same author. The
actors seem to have flourished, while Thomas Lord
Scroope, of Bolton, was W^arden of the West Marches
of England, and g-overnor of Carlisle castle ; which of-
fices he acquired upon the death of his father, about
1590, and retained till the union of the crowns.
Dick of the Cow, from the privileged insolence which
he assumes, seems to have been Lord Scroope's jester.
In the preliminary dissertation, the reader will find the
Border custom of assuming nommes de guerre par-
ticularly noticed. It is exemplified in the following-
hallad, where one Armstrong- is called the Laird! s
Jock, (i. e. the laird's son Jock,) another Fair Johnie,
62 MINSTRELSY OF
a third Slllie Willie, (brother Willie,) Src. The
Laird's Jock, son to the Laird of Mangertoiin, ap-
pears, as one of the men of name in Liddesdale, in the
list of the Border Clans, 1597.
Dick of the Cow is erroneonsly supposed to have
been the same with one Ricardus Coldall, de Plump-
ton, a knight and celebrated warrior, who died in 1462,
as appears from his epitaph in the church of Penrith.
— Nicholson's History of Westmoreland and Cum-
herland, vol. ii. p. 408.
This ballad is very popular in Liddesdale ; and the
reciter always adds, at the conclusion, that poor
Dickie's cautious removal to Burgh under Stanemore,
did not save him from the clutches of the Armstrong's ;
for that, having- fallen into their power several years
after this exploit, he was put to an inhuman death.
The ballad was ^^'ell known in England so early as
1596. An allusion to it likewise occurs in Parrot's
Laqnei Ridiculosi, or Springesfor Woodcocks ; Lon-
don, 1613.
" Owenus wondretli since lie came to Wales,
What the description of this isle should be,
That nere had seen but mountains, hills, and dales,
Yet would he boast, and stand on pedigree.
From Rice ap Richard, sprung from Dick a Coiv,
Be cod, -yvas right gud gentleman, look ye now ! "
Epigr. 76.
DICK 0' THE COW.
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DICK 0' THE COW, CONTINUED.
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Dick o' the Cow.
DICK O' THE COW, CONTINUED.
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Dick o' tlie Cov;
Vol. n
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. G3
DICK O' THE COW,
Now LIddesdale has layeii laiig- in,
There is na ryding- there at a' ;
The horses are a' grown sae Hther fat,
They downa stir out o' the sta'.
Fair Johnie Armstrong- to Willie did say —
" Billie, a ri(Hng- we will gae ;
England and us have l^een lang- at feid ;
Ablins we'll light on some bootie." —
Then they are come on to Hatton Ha' ;
They rade that proper place about,
But the laird he was the wiser man,
For he had left nae g-ear without.
For he had left nae g-ear to steal,
Except sax sheep upon a lea :
Quo' Johnie — " I'd rather in England die,
Ere thir sax sheep gae to Liddesdale wi' me.
^^ But how ca' they the man we last met,
Billie, as we cam owre the know ?'* —
6'4' MINSTRELSY OF
" That same lie is an innocent fiile,
And men they call him Dick o' the Cow." —
" That fnle has three as good kye o' his ain,
As there are in a' Cumberland, billie," quo' he :
" Betide me life, betide me death,
These kye shall g-o to Liddesdale wi' me." — ^
Then they have come to the pure fule's house,
And they hae broken his wa's sae wide ;
They have loosed out Dick o' the Cow's three kye?
And ta'en three co'erlets frae his wife's bed.
Then on the morn when the day was light,
The shouts and cries raise loud and hie :
" O hand thy tongue, my wife," he says,
" And o' thy crying let me be !
" O hand thy tongue, my wife," he says,
" And o' thy crying let me be ;
And aye where thou hast lost ae cow.
In glide suith I shall bring- thee three." —
Now Dickie's gane to the gude Lord Scroope,
And I wat a dreirie fule was he ;
" Now hand thy tongue, my fule," he says,
" For I may not stand to jest wi' thee." —
Shame fa' your jesting-, my lord !" quo' Dickie;,
*' For nae sic jesting- g-rees wi' me ;
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 6j
Liddesdale's been in my house last night,
And they hae awa my three kye frae me.
" But I may nae langer in Cumberland dwell,
To be your puir fule and your leal,
Unless you gie me leave, my lord,
To gae to LIddesdale and steal." —
" I gie thee leave, my fule ! " he says ;
" Thou speakest ag-ainst my honour and me,
Unless thou g-ie me thy trowth and thy hand,
Thou'lt steal frae nane but whae sta' frae thee."
" There is my trowth, and my right hand !
My head shall hang- on Hairibee ;
I'll near cross Carlisle sands as-ain.
If I steal frae a man but whae sta' frae me."
Dickie's ta'en leave o' lord and master ;
I wat a merry fule was he !
He's bought a bridle and a pair o' new spurs,
And packed them up in his breek tliie.^
Then Dickie's come on to Pudding--burn house,^
E'en as fast as he might dree ; ^
^ The side pocket of Ms breeches.
^ This was a house of strength hekl by the Armstrongs. The
ruins at present form a sheep-fold on the farm of Reidsmoss, be-
longing to the Duke of Buccleuch.
^ Dree — i. e. Endure.
VOL. II. p-.
66 MINSTRELSY OF
Then Dickie's come on to Pudding-burn,
Where there were thirty Armstrangs and three.
" O what's this come o' me now ? " quo' Dickie ;
" Wliat mickle wae is this ?" quo' he ;
" For here is but ae innocent fule,
And there are thirty Armstrangs and three I"^
Yet he has come up to the fair ha' board,
Sae weil he's become his courtesie !
" Weil may ye be, my g-ude Laird's Jock !
JBut the deil bless a' your cumpanie.
" I'm come to plain o' your man, fair Johnie Armstrang-,
And syne o' his billie Willie," quo' he ;
" How they've been in my house last nig-ht.
And they hae ta'en my three kye frae me." —
" Ha ! " quo' fair Johnie Armstrang-, "we will him hang-.'*
— " Na," quo' Willie, " we'll him slae." —
Then up and spak another young- Armstrang-,
" We'll gae him his batts, and let him gae»" ^ —
But up and spak the gude Laird's Jock,
The best falla in a' the cumpanie,
" Sit down thy ways a little while, Dickie,
And a piece o' thy ain cow's hough I'll gie ye." —
* Gie him his batts and let him gae — Dismiss him with a beatiDg.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 67
But Dickie's heart it grew sae grit,
That the ne'er a bit o't he doug-ht to eat —
Then he was aware of an auld peat-house,
Where a' the night he thought for to sleep.
Then Dickie was aware of an auld peat-house,
Where a' the night he thoug-ht for to lye —
And a' the prayers the puir fule pray'd,
Were, "I wish I had amends for my gude three kye 1 "
It was then the use of Pudding--burn house,
And the house of Mang-erton,^ all hail,
Them that cam na at the iirst ca'.
Gat nae mair meat till the neist meal.
The lads, that hungry and weary were,
Abune the door-head they threw the key ;
Dickie he took gude notice o' that.
Says — " There will be a bootie for me."
Then Dickie has into the stable gane.
Where there stood thirty horses and three ;
He has tied them a' wi' St Mary's knot,
A' these horses but barely three. ^
' The Laird of IMangerton was chief of the clan Armstrong.
2 Hamstringing a horse is termed, in the Border dialect, tying
him with St Mary's knot. Dickie used this cruel expedient to
prevent a pursuit. It appears from the narration, that the horses
left unhurt, belonged to fair Johnie Armstrang, his brother Willie,
and the Laird's Jock— of which Dickie carried off two, aad left that
68 MINSTRELSY OF
He has tied them a' wi' St Mary's knot,
A' these horses hut harely three ;
He's loupen on ane, ta'en another in hand,
And away as fast as he can hie.
But on the morn, when the day grew light,
The shouts and cries raise loud and hie —
" Ah! whae has done this ?" quo' the gude Laird's Jock,
" Tell me the truth and the verity ! " —
<'AVliae has done this deed? " quo' thegude Laird's Jock ;
" See that to me ye dinna lie ! " —
*' Dickie has been in the stable last night,
Andhas ta'en my brother's horse and mine frae me." —
" Ye wad ne'er be tauld," quo' the gude Laird's Jock ;
" Have ye not found my tales fu' leil ?
Ye ne'er wad out o' England bide.
Till crooked, and blind, and a' would steal." —
" But lend me thy bay," fair Johnie 'gan say ;
*' There's nae horse loose in the stable save he ;
And I'll either fetch Dick o' the Cow again,
Or the day is come that he shall die." —
" To lend thee my bay ! " the Laird's Jock 'gan say,
" He's baith worth gowd and gude monie :
of the Laird's Jock, probably out of gratitude for the protection be
had afforded him on his arrival.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 69
Dick o' the Cow has awa' twa horse :
I wish na thou may make him three." —
He has ta'en the laird's jack on his back,
A twa-handed sword to hang; by his thie ;
He has ta'en a steil cap on his head,
And galloped on to follow Dickie.
Dickie was na a mile frae aiF the town,
I wat a mile but barely three,
When he was o'erta'en by fair Johnie Armstrong-,
Hand for hand, on Cannobie lee.^
" Abide, abide, thou traitour thiefe !
The day is come that thou maun die." — ■
Then Dickie look't ower his left shoulder,
Said — " Johnie, hast thou nae mae in companie ?
" There is a preacher in our chapell,
And a' the live-lang- day teaches he :
When day is gane and night is come.
There's ne'er a word I mark but three.
^' The first and second is — Faith and Conscience ;
The third — Ne'er let a traitour free :
But, Johnie, what faith and conscience was thine.
When thou took awa my three kye frae me ?
* A rising-ground on Cannobie, on the borders of Liddesdale.
) MINSTRELSY OF
" And when thou had ta'en awa my three kje,
Thou thoug-ht in thy heart thou wast not well sped,
Till thou sent thy billie Willie ower the know,
To tak three coverlets off my wife's bed ! " —
Then Johnie let a spear fa' laigh by his thie,
Thought weel to hae slain the innocent, I trow ;
But the powers above were mair than he,
For he ran but the pure fule's jerkin through.
Together they ran, or ever they blan ;^
This was Dickie the fule and he !
Dickie could na win at him wi' the blade o' the sword,
But fell'd him wi' the plummet under the ee.
Thus Dickie has fell'd fair Johnie Armstrong-,
The prettiest man in the south country —
" Gramercy !" then 'gan Dickie say,
*' I had buttwa horse, thou hast made me three ! " —
He's ta'en the steil jack aff Johnie's back.
The twa-handed sword that hung low by his thie ;
He's ta'en the steil cap aff his head —
" Johnie, I'll tell my master I met wi' thee." —
When Johnie wakened out o' his dream,
I wat a dreirie man was he :
^ Slan — i. e. blew — ^breathed.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 71
" And is thou g-ane ? Now, Dickie, than
The shame and diile is left wi' me.
" And is thou g-ane ? Now, Dickie, than
The deil gae in thy companie !
For if I should live these hundred years,
I ne'er shall light wi' a fule after thee." —
Then Dickie's come hame to the g-ude Lord Scroope,
E'en as fast as he might hie ;
*' Now, Dickie, I'll neither eat nor drink.
Till hie hang-ed thou shalt be." —
" The shame speed the liars, my lord !" quo' Dickie ;
" This was na the promise ye made to me !
For I'd ne'er gang to Liddesdale to steal,
Had I not got my leave frae thee." —
" But what garr'd thee steal the Laird's Jock's horse ?
And, limmer, what garr'd ye steal him ? " quo' he ;
" For lang- thou mightst in Cumberland dwelt,
Ere the Laird's Jock had stown frae thee." ^ —
^ The commendation of tlie Laird's Jock's honesty seems but
indiiferently founded ; for, in July, 1586, a bill was fouled against
Mm, Dick of Dryup, and others, by the deputy of Bewcastle, at a
warden-meeting, for 400 head of cattle taken in open foray from
the Drysike in Bewcastle : and in September, 1587, another com-
plaint appears at the instance of one Andrew Rutlege of the Nook,
against the Laird's Jock, and his accomphces, for 30 kine and oxen,
72 MINSTRELSY OF
'* Indeed I wat ye lied, my lord !
And e'en sae loud as I hear ye lie !
besides furniture, to the amount of 100 morks sterling. See Bell's
MSS., cas quoted in the History of Cumlerland and Westmoreland.
In Sir Richard IMaitland's poem against the thieves of Liddesdale,
he thus commemorates the Laird's Jock : —
" They spuilyepuir men of tlieir pakis.
They leif them nocht on hcd nor bakis j
Baith hen and cok.
With rail and rok.
The Lairdis Jock
All with him takis."
Those -who plundered Dick had been bred up under an expert
teacher. Tradition reports that the Laird's Jock survived to ex-
treme old age, when he died in the following extraordinary manner.
A challenge had been given by an Englishman, named Forster, to
any Scottish Borderer, to fight him at a place called Kershope-
foot, exactly upon the Borders. The Laird's Jock's only son ac-
cepted the defiance, and was armed by his father with his own two-
handed sword. The old champion himself, though bed-ridden, in-
sisted upon being present at the battle. He was borne to the place
appointed, wrapped, it is said, in blankets, and placed upon a very
high stone to witness the conflict. In the duel liis son fell, treach-
erously slain, as the Scotch tradition affirms. The old man gave
a loud yeU of terror and despair when he saw his son slain and his
noble weapon won by an Englishman, and died as they bore him
home. A venerable Border poet (though of these latter days) has
composed a poem on this romantic incident. The stone on wlaich
the Laird's Jock sat to behold the duel, was in existence till wan-
tonly destroyed a year or two since. It was always called The
Laird's Jock's Stone. 1802. [The reader will find Sir Walter
Scott recurring to the fate of the Laird's Jock, in 1828. See
"VVaverley Novels, vol. xli, p. 377.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 73
I wan the horse frae fair Johnie Armstrang-,
Hand to hand, on Cannobie lee.
" There is the jack was on his back ;
This twa-handed sword hung- laig-h by his thie,
And there's the steil cap was on his head ;
I broug-ht a' these tokens to let thee see." —
^' If that be true thou to me tells,
(And I think thou dares na tell a lie,)
I'll gie thee fifteen punds for the horse,
Weil tauld on thy cloak lap shall be,
" I'll gie thee ane o' my best milk kye,
To maintain thy wife and children three ;
And that may be as gude, I think,
As ony twa o' thine wad be." —
" The shame speed the liars, my lord I" quo' Dickie ;
" Trow ye aye to make a fule o' me ?
I'll either hae twenty punds for the gude horse,
Or he's gae to Mortan fair wi' me." —
He's gi'en him twenty punds for the g-ude horse,
A' in goud and gude monie ;
He's gi'en him ane o' his best milk kye,
To maintain his wife and children three.
Then Dickie's come down thro' Carlisle toun,
E'en as fast as he could drie :
/4 MINSTRELSY OF
The first o' men that he met wi',
Was my Lord's brother, Bailiff Glozenbiirrie.
" Weil be ye met, my g-ude Ralph Scroope ! " —
" Welcome, my brother's fule ! " quo' he :
"Where didst thou get fair Johnie Armstrang's horse:
— " Wliere did I get him, but steal him," quo' he.
" But wilt thou sell me the bonny horse ?
And, billie, wilt thou sell him to me ?" quo' he :—
" Ay ; if thou'lt tell me the monie on my cloak lap :
For there's never ae penny I'll trust thee." —
*' I'll gie thee ten punds for the gude horse,
Weil tauld on thy cloak lap they shall be ;
And I'll gie thee ane o' the best milk kye.
To maintain thy wife and children three." —
" The shame speed the liars, my lord !" quo' Dickie
" Trow ye aye to make a fule o' me !
I'll either hae twenty punds for the gude horse,
Or he's gae to Mortan fair wi' me." —
He's gi'en him twenty punds for the gude horse,
Baith in goud and gude monie ;
He's gi'en him ane o' his milk kye.
To maintain his wife and children three.
Then Dickie lap a loup fu' hie.
And I wat a loud laugh laughed he —
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
" I wish the neck o' the third horse was broken,
If ony of the twa were better than he ! "
Then Dickie's come hame to his wife ag-ain :
Judge ye how the puir fule had sped !
He has gi'en her twa score Eng-Hsh punds,
For the three auld coverlets ta'en afF her bed.
" And tak thee these twa as gude kye,
I trow, as a' thy three might be ;
And yet here is a white -footed nag-ie,
I trow he'll carry baith thee and me,
" But I may nae langer in Cumberland bide ;
The Armstrangs they would hang me hie." —
So Dickie's ta'en leave at lord and master.
And at Burgh under Stanmuir there dwells he.
MINSTRELSY OF
JOCK O' THE SIDE.
The subject of this ballad being- a common event in
those troublesome and disorderly times, became a favour-
ite theme of the ballad-makers. There are, in this col-
lection, no fewer than three poems on the rescue of
prisoners, the incidents in which nearly resemble each
other ; though the poetical description is so different,
that the Editor did not think himself at liberty to reject
any one of them, as borrowed from the others. As
however, there are several verses, which, in recitation,
are common to all these three songs, the Editor, to pre-
vent unnecessary and disagreeable repetition, has used
the freedom of appropriating them to that in which they
seem to have the best poetic effect.
The reality of this story rests solely upon the foun-
dation of tradition. Jock o' the Side seems to have
been nephew to the Laird of Mangertoun, cousin to the
Laird's Jock, one of his deliverers, and probably brother
to Christie of the Syde, mentioned in the list of Bor-
der clans, 1597. Like the Laird's Jock, he also is
commemorated by Sir Richard Maitland. — See the In-
troduction :
THE SCOTTISH BORDER, / /
" He is well kend, Joline of the Syde,
A greater tliief did never ryde ;
He ne\'ir tyris,
For to brek byris,
Our muir and myris
Ouir glide ane guide," &c.
Jock o' the Side appears to have assisted the Earl of
Westmoreland in his escape after his unfortunate insur-
rection with the Earl of Northumberland, in the twelfth
year of Elizabeth. " The two rebellious rebels went
into Liddesdale in Scotland, yesternig-ht, where Martin
Ell wood [Elliot] and others, that have given pledges to
the reg-entof Scotland, did raise their forces against them ;
being conducted by black Ormeston, an outlaw of Scot-
land, that was a principal murtherer of the King of Scots,
[Darnley] where the tight was offered, and both parties
alighted from their horses ; and, in the end, Ellwood
said to Ormeston, he would be sorry to enter deadly
feud with him by bloodshed ; but he would charge him
and the rest before the regent for keeping of the rebels ;
and if he did not put them out of the country, the next
day, he would doe his worst again them ; whereupon
the two Earls were driven to leave Liddesdale, and to
ily to one of the Armstrongs, a Scot upon the batable
[debateable] land on the Borders between Liddesdale
and England. The same day the Liddesdale men
stole the horses of the Countess of Northumberland, and
of her two women, and ten others of their company ;
so as, the earls being gone, the lady of Northumber-
land was left there on foot, at John of the Side's house,
78 MINSTRELSY OF
a cottag-e not to be compared to many a dog-kennel in
England. At their departing- from her, they went not
above fifty horse, and the Earl of Westmoreland, to be
the more unknown, changed his coat of plate and sword
with John of the Side, and departed like a Scottish
Borderer." — Advertisements from Hexham^ 2 2d De-
cember, 1569, in the Cabala, p. 160,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
JOCK O' THE SIDE.
Now Liddesdale has ridden a raid,
But I wat they had better hae staid at hame ;
For Michael o' Winfield he is dead,
And Jock o' the Side is prisoner ta'en.
For Mang-erton house Lady Downie has gane,
Her coats she has kilted up to her knee ;
And down the water wi' speed she rins,
Wliile tears in spaits^ fa' fast frae her ee.
Then up and spoke her gude auld lord —
" What news, what news, sister Downie, to me ?" —
" Bad news, bad news, my Lord Mang-erton ;
Michael is killed, and they hae ta'en my son Johnie."
— " Ne'er fear, sister Downie," quo' Mangerton ;
" I have yokes of ousen, eighty and three ;
My barns, my byres, and my faulds, a' weil j&ll'd,
I'll part wi' them a' ere Johnie shall die.
* Spaits — Torrents.
80 MINSTRELSY OF
" Three men I'll send to set him free,
A' harneist wi' the best o* steil ;
The Eng-lish louns may hear, and drie
The weight o' their braid-swords to feel.
" The Laird's Jock ane, the Laird's Wat twa,
O Hobbie Noble, thou ane maun be !
Thy coat is blue, thou hast been true,
Since England banished thee, to me." —
Now Hobbie was an English man.
In Bewcastle-dale was bred and born ;
But his misdeeds they were sae great.
They banished him ne'er to return.
Lord Mangerton them orders gave,
" Your horses the wrang way maun be shod ;
Like gentlemen ye mauna seem.
But look like corn-caugers^ ga'en the road.
*' Your armour gude ye mauna shaw.
Nor yet appear like men o' weir ;
As country lads be a' array 'd,
Wi branks and brecham" on each mare." —
Sae now their horses are the wrang way shod.
And Holibie has mounted his grey sae fine ;
^ Caugers — Carriers. — ^ B ranks and Brecham — Halter and cart-
collar.
SCOTTISH BORDER. 81
Jock his lively bay, Wat's on his white horse behind,
And on they rode for the water of Tyne.
At the Cholerford^ they a' light down.
And there, wi' the help of the light o' the moon,
A tree they cut, wi' fifteen nog-s on each side,
To chmb up the wa' of Newcastle toun.
But when they cam to Newcastle toun.
And were alig-hted at the wa',
They fand thair tree three ells ower laig-h.
They fand their stick baith short and sma'.
Then up spake the Laird's ain Jock ;
" There's naething- for't; the g-ates we maun force."
But when they cam the gate until,
A proud porter withstood baith men and horse.
His neck in twa the Armstrangs wrang- ;
Wi' fute or hand he ne'er play'd pa !
His life and his keys at anes they hae ta'en,
And cast the body ahint the wa'.
Now sune they reach Newcastle jail,
And to the prisoner thus they call ;
" Sleeps thou, wakes thou, Jock o' the Side,
Or art thou weary of thy thrall ?"
^ Cholerford is a ford on the T\-ne, above Hexham.
VOL. II. F
82 MINSTRELSY OF
Jock answers thus, wi' dolefu' tone ;
" Aft, aft I wake — I seldom sleep :
But whae's this kens my name sae weel,
And thus to mese ^ my waes does seek ? " —
Then out and spak the g-ude Laird's Jock,
" Now fear ye na, my billie," quo' he ;
" For here are the Laird's Jock, the Laird's Wat,
And Hobbie Noble, come to set thee free." —
" Now hand thy tongue, my gude Laird's Jock,
For ever, alas ! this canna be ;
For if a' Liddesdale were here the night.
The morn's the day that I maun die.
" Full fifteen stane o' Spanish iron,
They hae laid a' right sair on me ;
Wi' locks and keys I am fast bound
Into this dung-eon dark and dreirie." —
" Fear ye na' that," quo' the Laird's Jock ;
" A faint heart ne'er wan a fair ladie ;
Work thou within, we'll work without,
And I'll be sworn we'll set thee free." —
The first strong- door that they cam at,
They loosed it without a key ;
^ Mese — Soothe.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 83
The next chaln'd door that they cam at,
They garr'd it a' to flinders flee.
The prisoner now upon his back
The Laird's Jock has gotten up fii' hie ;
And down the stairs, him, aims and a',
Wi' nae sma' speed and joy brings he.
" Now, Jock, my man," quo' Hobbie Noble,
" Some o' his weight ye may lay on me." —
" I wat weel no ! " quo' the Laird's ain Jock,
" I count him lighter than a flee." —
Sae out at the gates they a' are gane,
The prisoner's set on horseback hie ;
And now wi' speed they've ta'en the gate,
While ilk ane jokes fu' wantonlie :
" O Jock ! sae winsomely ye ride,
Wi' baith your feet upon ae side ;
Sae weel ye're harneist, and sae trig.
In troth ye sit like ony bride I" —
The night, tho' wat, they did na mind,
But hied them on fu' merrilie,
Until they cam to Cholerford brae.
Where the water ran like mountains hie.
But when they cam to Cholerford,
There they met with an auid man ;
84 MINSTRELSY OF
Says — " Honest man, will the water ride ?
Tell us in haste, if that ye can." —
** I wat weel no," quo' the gude auld man ;
" I hae lived here thretty years and three,
And I ne'er yet saw the Tyne sae big-.
Nor running anes sae like a sea." —
Then out and spoke the Laird's saft Wat,
The greatest coward in the cumpanie
" Now halt, now halt ! we need na try't
The day is come we a' maun die ! " —
<' Puir faint-hearted thief!" cried the Laird's ain Jock^
" There'll nae man die but him that's lie ;^
I'll guide ye a' right safely thro' ;
Lift ye the pris'ner on ahint me." —
Vv^i' that the water they hae ta'en.
By ane's and twa's they a' swam thro' ;
" Here are we a' safe," quo' the Laird's Jock,
" And, puir faint Wat, what think ye now ? " —
They scarce the other brae had won,
When twenty men they saw pursue ;
Frae Newcastle toun they had been sent,
A' English lads baith stout and true.
Fie — Predeatiaed.
THE SCOTTISH BOKDER. 85
But when the land-sergeant ^ the water saw,
" It winna ride, my lads,'* says he ;
Then cried aloud — " The prisoner take,
But leave the fetters, I pray, to me." — ^
" I wat weel no," quo' the Laird's ain Jock,
" I'll keep them a' ; slioon to my mare they'll be :
My gude bay mare — for I am sure,
She has boug-ht them a' right dear frae thee." —
Sae now they are on to Liddesdale,
E'en as fast as they could them hie ;
The prisoner is brought to's ain fire-side,
And there o's aims they mak him free.
" Now, Jock, my billie," quo' a' the three,
" The day is comed thou was to die ;
But thou's as weel at thy ain ingle-side,
Now sitting-, I think, 'twixt thee and me."
^ Tte land-sergeant (mentioned also in Hobbie Noble) was an
officer under tlie warden, to whom was committed the apprebending
of delinquents, and tbe care of the public peace.
86 MINSTRELSY OF
THE
DEATH OF FEATHERSTONHAUGH.
This old Northumbrian ballad was originally printed
in the Notes to Marmion, but it is here inserted in its
proper place. It was taken down from the recitation
of a woman eig-hty years of ag-e, mother of one of the
miners in Alston-Moor, by the agent of the lead mines
there, who communicated it to my friend and corre-
spondent, R. Surtees, Esq. of Mainsforth. She had not,
she said, heard it for many years ; but, when she was
a girl, it used to be sung at merry-makings, " till the
roof rung- again." To preserve this curious, though
rude rhyme, it is here inserted. The ludicrous turn
given to the slaughter, marks that wild and disorderly
state of society, in which a murder was not merely a
casual circumstance, but, in some cases, an exceedingly
good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the
" Fray of Suport," having the same irregular stanza
and wild chorus. 1810.^
' [One of the house of Thirl wall, mentioned in this ballad, and
in the notes to it, figures in Sir Walter Scott's last novel — Castle
Dangerous. — Ed. ]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 87
DEATH OF FEATHERSTONHAUGH, .^^
Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa',
Ha' je heard how the Ridleys, and Thirlwalls, and a'
Ha' set upon Albany^ Featherstonhaugh,
And taken his life at the Deadmanshaui'h ?
o
There was WiUimoteswick,
And Hardriding- Dick,
And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will of the Wa'.^
I canno tell a', I canno tell a',
And mony a mair that the deil may knaw.
' Pronounced Aivhony.
~ In explanation of this ancient ditty, IVIr Surtees lias furnished
me with the following local memorandum : WiUimoteswick, now
more commonly called Ridley Hall, is situated at the confluence
of the Allon and Tyne, and was the cliief seat of the ancient family
of Ridle\'. Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to horse-
manship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding, the seat of an-
other family of that name, wlilch, in the time of Charles I., was
sold on account of expenses Incurred by the loyalty of the proprie-
tor, the immediate ancestor of Sir IMatthew Ridley. Will of the
Wa' seems to be William Ridley of Walltown, so called from its
Ob MINSTRELSY OF
The auld man went down, but Nicol, his son,
Ran away afore the fight was begun ;
And he run, and he run.
And afore they were done,
There was many a Featherston gat sic a stun,
As never was seen since the world beg-uuc
I canno tell a', I canno tell a' ;
Some gat a skelp,^ and some g-at a claw ;
But they garr'd the Featherstons hand their jaw,
Nicol, and Alick, and a'.
situation on tlie great Roman "Wall. Thirlwall Castle, .whence tlie
clan of Thiiiwalls derived their name, is situated on the small river
of Tippell, near the western boundary of Northumberland. It is
near the wall, and takes its name from the rampart having been
thirled, i. e. pierced, or breached, in its vicinity. Featherston
Castle lies south of the Tyne, towards Alston-Moor. Albany
Featherstonhaugh, the chief of that ancient family, made a figure in.
the reign of Edward VI. A feud did certainly exist between the
Ridleys and Featherstones, productive of such consequences as the
ballad narrates. " 24 Oct. 22do Henrici 8vi Inquisitio capt. aptid
Hautivhistle, sup. visum corpus Alexandri Featherston, Gen.
apud Grensilhaugh, felonice interfecti, 21 Oct. per Nicolaum.
Ridley de Unthanke, Gen. Hugon Ridle, Nicolaum Ridle, et
alios ejusdem nominis." Nor were the Featherstones without their
revenge; for 36to Henrici 8vi, we have — " Utlagatio Nicolai
Featherston, ac Thomce Nyxon, ^c. pro homicidio V/illmi. Ridle
de Morale."
' Skelj) — signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was
originally spelled schlap.
^ Hand their jaw — Hold their jaw ; a vulgar expression stiU in use.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 89
Some gat a hurt, and some g-at nane ;
Some bad harness, and some gat sta'en.^
Ane gat a twist o' the craig ;"
Ane gat a bunch^ o' the wame ;^
Symy Haw gat lamed of a leg,
And syne ran wallowing^ hame.
Hoot, hoot, the auld man's slain outright I
Lay him now wi' his face down : — he's a sorrowful sight.
Janet, thou donot,^
I'll lay my best bonnet.
Thou gets a new gude-man afore it be night.
Hoo away, lads, hoo away,
We's a' be hangid if we stay.
Tak' up the dead man, and lay him anent the bigging :
Here's the Bailey o' Halt whistle, '^
Vv^i' his great bull's pizzle,
That supp'd up the broo', and syne in the j^iggin/^
^ Gat stamen — Got stolen, or were plundered ; a very likely ter-
mination of the fray.
2 Craig— ^eck ^ Bunch— Pun^a * Wome— Belly ^ j^al-
loioing — Bellowing.
° Donot — SUly slut. [Do-nought.] The Border bard calls her
so, because she was weeping for her husband ; a loss vvhich he seems
to think might be soon repaired.
' Bailey o' Haltichistle — The Bailiff of Haltwhistle seems to
have arrived when the fray was over. This supporter of social order
is treated with characteristic irreverence by the moss-trooping poet.
^ An iron-pot with two ears.
90 MINSTRELSY OF
HOBBIE NOBLE.
are
We have seen the hero of this ballad act a distin-
;iiished part in the deliverance of Jock o' the Side, and
now to learn the ungrateful return which the Arm-
strongs made him for his faithful services.^ Halbert,
or Hobbie Noble, appears to have been one of those
numerous English outlaws, who, being forced to flv
their own country, had established themselves on the
Scottish Borders. As Hobbie continued his depreda-
tions upon the English, they bribed some of his hosts,
' The original editor of tlie Reliques of Ancient Poetry has
noticed the perfidy of this clan in another instance ; the dehvery of
the banished Earl of Northumberland into the hands of the Scot-
tish regent, by Hector of Harelaw, an Armstrong, with whom he
had taken refuge. — Percy, vol. i. p. 283. — This Hector of Hare-
law seems to have been an Englishman, or under English assu-
rance ; for he is one of those, against whom bills were exhibited by
the Scottish commissioners, to the Lord Bishop of Carhsle. — In-
troduction to the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, p.
81. In the hst of Borderers, 1597, Hector of Harelaw, with the
Griefs and Cuts of Harelaw, also figures as an inhabitant of the
Debateable Land. It would appear, from a spirited invective in the
IMaitland IMS. against the regent, and those who delivered up the
unfortunate earl to Ehzabeth, that Hector had been guilty of this
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 91
the Armstrongs, to decoy him into England under
pretence of a predatory expedition. He was there de-
livered, l)y his treacherous companions, into the hands
of the officers of justice, by whom he was conducted to
Carhsle, and executed next morning-. The Laird of
JNlangertoun, with whom Hobbie was in high favour,
is said to have taken a severe revenge upon the traitors
who betrayed him. The principal contriver of the
scheme, called here Sim o' the Maynes, fled into Eng-
land from the resentment of his chief ; but experienced
there the common fate of a traitor, being himself exe-
cuted at Carlisle, about two months after Hobble's
death. Such is, at least, the tradition of Liddesdale.
Sim o' the Maynes appears among the Armstrongs of
Whitauch, in Liddesdale, in the list of Clans so often
alluded to.
treachery, to redeem the pledge whlcli had been exacted from him
for his peaceable demeanour. The poet says, that the perfidy of
JMorton and Lochlevin was worse than even that of —
— •• the traitour Eckie of Harelaw,
That says he soiild him to redeem his pledge ;
Your deed is war, as all the world does know —
You nothing can but covatice allege."
PiNKERTON's Maitlatid Poemn, vol. i. p. 290.
Eclvie is the contraction of Hector among the vulgar.
These little memoranda may serve still farther to illustrate the
beautiful ballads, upon that subject, pubHshed in the Reliques.
92 MINSTRELSY OF
HOBBIE NOBLE.
Foul fa' the breast first Treason bred in I
That Liddesdale may safely say ;
For in it there was baith meat and drink,
And corn unto our geldings gay.
And we were a' stout-hearted men,
As England she might often say ;
But now we may turn our backs and flee,
Since brave Noble is sold away.
Now Hobbie was an English man,
And born into Bewcastle dale ;
But his misdeeds they were so great,
They banish'd him to Liddesdale.
At Kershope foot the tryste was set,
Kershope of the lilye lee ; ^
* Kershope -burn, wliere Hobble met bis treacherous companions,
falls into tbe Liddel, from the Engbsh side, at a place called Tur-
nersholm, where, according to tradition, tourneys and gamet cf
chivalry were often solemnized.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 93
And there was traitour Sim o' the Mains, ^
And with him a private companie.
Then Hobbie has graithed^ his body fair,
Baith wi' the iron and wi' the steel ;
And he has ta'en out his fringed grey,
And there, brave Hobbie, he rade him weel.
Then Hobbie is down the water gane,
E'en as fast as he could hie ;
Tho' a' should hae bursten and broken their hearts^
Frae that riding -tryst he wad na be.
" Well be ye met, my feres ^ live !
And now, what is your will wi' me ?" —
Then they cried a', wi' ae consent,
" Thou'rt welcome here, brave Noble, to me.
*' Wilt thou with us into I^gland ride,
And thy safe warrand we will be ?
If we get a horse worth a hundred pound,
Uj)on his back thou sune sail be." —
" I dare not by day into England ride ;
The Land- Sergeant has me at feid :
^ Tlie IMains was anciently a Border-keep, near Castletown, on
the north side of the Liddel, but is now totally demolished.
^ Graithed — Clad.— ^ Feres — Companions.
94 MINSTRELSY OF
And I know not what evil may betide,
For Peter of Whitfield, his brother, is dead.
" And Anton Shiel he loves not me.
For I g-at twa drifts o' his sheep ;
The g-reat Earl of Whitfield^ loves me not.
For nae gear frae me he e'er could keep.
" But will ye stay till the day g-ae down,
Until the nig;ht come o'er the g-rund,
And I'll be a guide worth ony twa
That may in Liddesdale be found ?
" Though the night be black as pick and tar,
I'll g-uide ye o'er yon hill sae hie ;
And bring- ye a' in safety back,
If ye'll be true and follow me." —
He has guided them o'er moss and muir,
O'er hill and hope, and mony a down ;
Until they came to the Foulbogshiel,
And there, brave Noble, he lighted down.
^ "Whitfield is explained by ^Ir Ellis of Otterbourne to be a large
and rather wild manorial district in the extreme southwest part of
Northumberland ; the proprietor of wliich might be naturally called
the Lord, though not Earl of Whitfield. I suspect, however, that
the reciters may have corrupted the great Ralph Whitfield into
Earl of Whitfield. Sir INIatthew W^hitfield of WTiitfield was She-
riff of Northumberland in 1433, and the estate continued in the
family from the reign of Richard II. till about fifty years since.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 95
But word is gane to the Land- Sergeant,
In Askerton ^ where that he lay —
" The deer, that ye hae hunted sae lang-,
Is seen into the Waste this day." —
" The Hobbie Noble is that deer !
I wat he carries the style fu' hie ;
Aft has he driven our bluidhounds back,-
And set ourselves at little lee.
" Gar warn the bows of Hartlie-burn,
See they sharp their arrows on the wa' !
' Askerton is an old castle, now ruinous, situated in the wilds of
Cumberland, about seventeen miles north-east of Carlisle, amidst
that mountainous and desolate tract of country bordering upon Lid-
desdale, emphatically termed the Waste of Bewcastle.
" The russet bloodhound, wont, near Annand's stream.
To trace the sly thief with avenging foot,
Close as an evil conscience still at hand."
Our ancient statutes inform us, that the blood-hound, or sluith-
hound (so called from its quality of tracing the slot, or track, of
men and animals) was early used in the pursuit and detection of
marauders. Nullus perturhet aut Impediat canem trassantem, aut
homines trassantes cum ipso, ad sequendum latrones. — Regiam.
Majestatem, lib. 4tus, cap. 32. And, so late as 1616, there
was an order from the king's commissioners of the northern coun-
ties, that a certain number of slough-hounds should be maintained
in every district of Cumberland, bordering upon Scotland. They
were of great value, being sometimes sold for a hundred crowns. —
Exposition of Bleau's Atlas, voce Nithsdcde. The breed of this
sagacious animal, which could trace the human footstep with the
most unerring accuracy, is now nearly extinct.
96 MINSTRELSY OF
Warn Willeva and Speir Edom,^
And see the morn they meet me a^
" Gar meet me on the Rodric-haugh, ~
And see it be by break o' day ;
And we will on to Conscouthart-green,
For there, I think, we'll get our prey." —
Then Hobbie Noble has dreimit a dreim,
In the Foulbogshiel where that he lay ;
He dreimit his horse was aneath him shot,
And he himself got hard away.
The cocks 'goud^ craw, the day 'goud daw,
And I wot sae even fell down the rain ;
^ "Willeva and Speir Edom are small districts in Bewcastledale,
through which also the Hartlie-burn takes its course.
- Conscouthart- Green, and Rodric-haugh, and the Foulbogshiel,
are the names of places in the same wilds, through which the Scot-
tish plunderers generally made their raids upon England ; as appears
from^the following passage in a letter from William, Lord Dacre, to
Cardinal Wolsey, 18th July, 1528; Appendix to Pinkerton's
Scotland, v. 12, No. XIX. " Like it also your grace, seeing^
the disordour within Scotlaund, that aU the mysguyded men, Bor-
derers of the same, inhabiting within Eskdale, Ewsdale, Walghope-
dale, Liddesdale, and a part of Tividale, foranempt BewcasteUdale^
and a part of the ]\Iiddle Marches of this the King's Bordours, en-
tres not this West and IMiddle Marches, to do any attemptate to the
King our said soveraine's subjects : but thaye come thorow Bewcas-
telldale, and retornes, for the most parte, the same waye agayne."
^ Goud — i. e. begoud — began.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 97
Had Hobbie na wakened at that time
In the Foulbogshiel, he had been ta'en or slain.
" Awake, awake, my feres five I
I trow here makes a fu' ill day ;
Yet the worst cloak o' this company,
I hope shall cross the Waste this day." —
Now Hobbie thought the gates were clear ;
But, ever alas ! it ^vas na sae :
They were beset by cruel men and keen,
That away brave Hobbie might na g-ae.
" Yet follow me, my feres five.
And see ye keep of me g-ude ray ;
And the worst cloak o' this company
Even yet may cross the Waste this day." —
But the Land- Sergeant's men cam Hobbie before,
The traitor Sim cam Hobbie behin',
So had Noble Ijeen wight as W^allace was,
Away, alas ! he might na win.
Then Hobbie had but a laddie's sword ;
But he did mair than a laddie's deed ;
For that sword had clear'd Conscouthart-green,
Had it not broke o'er Jerswigham's head.
Then they hae ta'en brave Hobbie Noble,
Wi's ain bo^vstring they band him sae
VOL. II. G
98 MINSTRELSY OF
But his gentle heart was ne'er sae sair,
As when his ain five bound him on the brae^
They hae ta'en him on for west Carlisle ;
They ask'd him, if he kend the way ?
Though much he thought, yet little he said ;
H^ knew the gate as weel as they.
They hae ta'en him up the Ricker-gate ;^
The wives they cast their windows wide ;
And every wife to another can say,
" That's the man loosed Jock o' the Side !" —
" Fy on ye, women ! why ca' ye me man ?
For it's nae man that I'm used like ;
I am but like a forfoughen^ hound,
Has been fighting in a dirty syke." ^
They hae had him up through Carlisle town,
And set him by the chimney fire ;
They gave brave Noble a loaf to eat,
' And that was little his desire.
They gave him a wheaten loaf to eat,
And after that a can of beer ;
And they a' cried, with one consent,
" Eat, brave Noble, and make gude cheir.
* A street in Carlisle. — ^ Forfoughen — Quite fatigued.
^3 ^yyJe— Ditch.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 99
« Confess my lord's horse, Hobble," they said,
" And to-morrow in Carlisle thou's na dee."
" How can I confess them," Hobbie says,
" When I never saw them with my ee ? "
Tlien Hobbie has sworn a fu' great aith,
By the day that he was gotten and born,
He never had onything o' my lord's,
That either eat him grass or corn.
^^ Now fare thee weel, sweet Mangerton ! ^
For I think again I'll ne'er thee see :
I wad hae betray'd nae lad alive.
For a' the gowd o' Christentie.
" And fare thee weel, sweet Liddesdale !
Baith the hie land and the law ;
Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains !
For goud and gear he'll sell ye a'.
' Of the Castle of Mangertoun, so often mentioned in these bal-
lads, there are very few vestiges. It was situated on the banks of
the LiddeU, below Castletoun. In the waU of a neighbouring mill,
which has been entirely built from the ruins of the tower, there is
a remarkable stone, bearing the arms of the Lairds of Mangertoun,
and a long broadsword, with the figures 1383; probably the dati
of building, or repairing, the castle. On each side of the shield are
the letters S. A. and E. E., standing probably for Symon Arm-
strong and Ehzabeth EUiott. Such is the only memorial of the
Lairds of Mangertoun, except those rude baUads, which the Editor
now offers to the pubhc.
100 MINSTRELSY OF
" Yet wad I rather be ca'd Hobbie Noble,
In Carlisle, where he suffers for his fau't,
Than I'd be ca'd the traitor Mains,
That eats and drinks o' the meal and maiit."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 101
ROOKHOPE RYDE.
This is a Bishopric Border song-, composed in 1 569?
taken down from the chanting- of Georg-e Colling-wood
the elder, late of Boltsbiirn, in the neighbourhood of
Ryhope, who was interred at Stanhope, the I6th De-
cember, 1785.
Rookhope is the name of a valley about live miles in
length ; at the termination of which, Rookhope burn
empties itself into the river Wear : the dale lies in the
north part of the parish of Stanhope, in Weardale.
Rookhope-head is the top of the vale. The ballad
derives some additional interest, from the date of the
event being- so precisely ascertained to be the 6th De-
cember, 1572, when the Tynedale robbers, taking-
advantage of the public confusion occasioned by the
rebellion of Westmoreland and Northumberland, and
which particularly affected the bishopric of Durham,
determined to make this foray into Weardale.
The late eminent antiquary, Joseph Ritson, took
down this ballad from the mouth of the reciter, and
j^rinted it as part of an intended collection of Border
102 MINSTRELSY OF
Ballads, which was never published. His nephew, Mr
Frank, was so good as to favour me with the copy from
which it is here given. To the illustrations of Mr Rit-
son, I have been enabled to add those of my friend Mr
Surtees, of Mainsforth,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 10^
ROOKHOPE RYDE.
RooKHOPE stands in a pleasant place,
If the false thieves wad let it be,
But away they steal our g-oods apace,
And ever an ill death may they dee !
And so is the men of ThirlwalP and Willie-haver,'
And all their companies thereabout,
^ Tlilrlwall, or Tbirlitwall, is said by Fordun, the Scottisli his-
torian, to be a name given to tbe Picts' or Roman wall, from its
having been thirled, or perforated, in ancient times, by the Scots
and Picts. Wyntown also, who most probably copied Fordun,
calls it Thirlwail. Thirl wall castle, though in a very ruinous
condition, is still standing by the site of this famous wall, upon the
river Tippal. It gave name to the ancient fanuly, De Thirlwail.
[Sir John Thirlwail, of this family, is mentioned in Sir Walter Scott's
last novel as English Governor of Douglas Castle in the time of
Robert Bruce Ed.]
^ WUhe -haver, or Willeva, is a small district or township in the
parish of Lanercost, near Bewcastledale, in Cumberland, mentioned
in the preceding ballad of Hohhie Nohle : —
" Warn Willeva, and Spear Edom,
And see the morn they meet them a'."
104 MINSTRELSY OF
That is minded to do mischief,
And at their stealing stands not out.
But yet we will not slander them all,
For there is of them g-ood enow ;
It is a sore consumed tree
That on it bears not one fresh bough.
Lord God ! is not this a pitiful case,
That men dare not dri^e their goods to the fell,
But limmer thieves drives them away.
That fears neither heaven nor hell ?
Lord, send us peace into the realm.
That every man may live on his own I
I trust to God, if it be his will.
That Weardale men may never be overthrown.
For great troubles they've had in hand,
With Borderers jDricking hither and thither.
But the greatest fray that e'er they had.
Was with the men of Thirlwall and Willie-haver,
They gather'd together so royalh^.
The stoutest men and the best in gear ;
And he that rade not on a horse,
I wat he rade on a weel-fed mear.
So in the morning, before they came out.
So weel I wot they broke their fast ;
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 105
In the forenoon they came into a bye fell,
WTiere some of them did eat their last.^
When they had eaten aye and done,
They say'd some captains here needs must be :
Then they choosed forth Harry Corbyl,
And " Symon Fell," and Martin Ridley.
Then o'er the moss, where as they came.
With many a brank and whew.
One of them could to another say,
" I think this day we are men enew.
" For W^eardale-men have a journey ta'en.
They are so far out o'er yon fell.
That some of them's with the two earls,"
And others fast in Bernard castell.
1 This would be about eleven o'clock, tbe usual dinuer-hour iii
that period.
- The two Earls were Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland,
and Charles Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, who, on the loth of
November, 1569, at the head of their tenantry and others, took
arms for the purpose of liberating Blary, Queen of Scots, and re-
storing the old religion. They besieged Barnard castle, which wa.«,
for eleven days, stoutly defended by Sir George Bowes, who, after-
ward, being appointed the Queen's marshal, hanged the poor con-
stables and peasantry by dozens in a day, to the amount of 800.
The Earl of Northumberland, betrayed by the Scots, witn whom
he had taken refuge, was beheaded at York, on the 22d of August,
1572 ; and the Earl of Westmoreland, deprived of the ancient and
2
106
MINSTRELSY OF
" There we shall get gear enough,
For there is nane but women at hame ;
The sorrowful fend that they can make,
Is loudly^ cries as they were slain."
Then in at Rookhope-head they came,
And there they thought tul a' had their prey.
But they were spy'd coming over the Dry-rig,
Soon upon Saint Nicolas' day.^
Then in at Rookhope-head they came.
They ran the forest but a mile ;
They gathered together in four hours
Six hundred sheep within a while.
And horses I trow they gat.
But either ane or twa.
And they gat them all but ane
That belang'd to great Rowley.
That Rowley was the first man that did them spy.
With that he raised a mighty cry ;
noble patrimony of the Nevils, and reduced to beggary, escaped
over sea, into Flanders, and died in misery and disgrace, being the
last of Ms family. See two ballads on tliis subject, in Percy's Col-
lection, (i, 271, 281,) and consider wbetber they be genuine
RiTSON.
^ This is still the phraseology of Westmoreland : a poorly man, a
softly day, and the hke ^ jj^g g^j^ ^f December.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 107
The cry it came down Rookhope burn,
And spread! through Weardale hasteyly.
Then word came to the baiUfF's house
At the East-gate,^ where he did dwell ;"
He was walk'd out to the Smale-burns,
Which stands above the Hanging-well.^
His wife was wae when she heard tell,
So weel she wist her husband wanted gear ;
^ Now a straggling ^^Lllage so called ; originally, it would seem,
the gate-house, or ranger's lodge, at the east entrance of Stanhope-
park. At some distance from this place is West-gate, so called for
a similar reason. — Ritson.
' The mention of the bailiff's house at the East-gate is (were
such a proof wanting) strongly indicative of the authenticity of the
ballad. The family of Emerson of East-gath, a fief, if I may so
call it, held under the bishop, long exercised the office of bailiff of
Wolsingham, the chief town and borough of Weardale, and of For-
ster, &c., under successive prelates; and the present bishop's game-
keeper and ranger witliin Weardale, may be said to claim liis office
by maternal descent, being Emerson IMuschamp, (another ancient
name,) and, though somewhat shorn of his beams, the Uneal heir
of the old baiUffs of Weardale. " Rob. Emerson Parcarius de
Stanliopp. 13 Aug. 7 Rob. Nevill Epi Cuthb. Emerson de
Eastgat sub Forestar. Parci de Stanhopp. 1 Wolsey Lease of
the East-gate to IMr George Emerson for 30 years, lOZ. p. ann. 4
Ed. C. Bp. Tunstall Rob. Emerson de Eastgat. sede vacantep,
depriv. Tunstall parcar. Dne Regine Geo. et Ric. Emerson
BaUivide Wolsingham. 12 Sept. 1616, sicut Geo. RoEivel. Rollands
Emerson olim tenuere." — Surtees.
^ A place in the neighbourhood of East-gate, known at present,
as well as the Dry-rig, or Smale-burns ; being the property of IMr
Robert Richardson, by inheritance, since before 1583. — Ritson.
108
MINSTRELSY OF
She gar'd saddle him his horse in haste,
And neither forget sword, jack,^ nor spear.
The baihfF g-ot wit before his gear came,
That such news was in the land,
He was sore troubled in his heart.
That on no earth that he could stand.
His brother was hurt three days before.
With limmer thieves that did him prick ;
Nineteen bloody wounds lay him upon,
What ferly was't that he lay sick ?
But yet the bailiff shrinked nought,
But fast after them he did hye.
And so did all his neighbours near,
That went to bear him company.
But when the bailiif was gathered,
And all his company.
They were numbered to never a man
But forty under fifty.
The thieves was numbered a hundred men,
I wat they were not of the worst ;
1 A jacket, or short coat, plated or institched witli small pieces. ■
of iron, and usually worn by the peasantry of the Border in their
journeys from place to place, as well as in their occasional skirmishes
with the moss-troopers, who were most probably equipped with the
same sort of harness Rixsox.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 109
That could be choosed out of Thirhvall and Willie-
haver,
" I trow they were the very first." ^
But all that was in Rookhope-head,
And all that was i' Nuketon-cleugh,
Where Weardale-men o'ertook the thieves,
And there they g-ave them fighting- eneugh.
So sore they made them fain to flee.
As many was a' out of hand,
And, for tul have been at home again.
They would have been in iron bands.
And for the space of long- seven years
As sore they mighten a' had their lives,
But there was never one of them
That ever thought to have seen their wives.
About the time the fray began,
I trow it lasted but an hour,
Till many a man lay weaponless.
And was sore wounded in that stour.
Also before that hour was done,
Four of the thieves were slain.
^ The reciter, from his advanced age, could not recollect the ori.
ginal line thus imperfectly supplied Ritson.
110 MINSTRELSY OF
Besides all those that wounded were,
And eleven prisoners there was ta'en.
Georg-e Carrick, and his brother Edie,
Them two, I wot they were both slain ;
Harry Cbrbyl, and Lennie Carrick,
Bore them company in their pain.
One of our Weardale-men was slain,
Rowland Emerson his name higiit ;
I trust to God his soul is well,
Because he fought unto the right.
But thus they say'd, " We'll not depart
While we have one : — Speed back again ! "-
And when they came amongst the dead men,
There they found George Carrick slain.
And when they found George Carrick slain,
I wot it went well near theii' heart ;
Lord, let them never make a better end,
That comes to play them sicken a part.
I trust to God, no more they shall.
Except it be one for a great chance ;
For God will punish all those
With a great heavy pestilence.
Thir limmer thieves, they have good hearts,
They nevir think to be o'erthrown ;
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. Ill
Three banners against Weardale-men they bare,
As if the world had been all their own.
Thir Weardale-men, they have good hearts,
They are as stiff as any tree ;
For, if they'd every one been slain,
Never a foot back man would ilee.
And such a storm amongst them fell,
As I think you never heard the like ;
For he that bears his head so high,
He oft-tymes falls into the dyke.
And now I do entreat you all,
As many as are present here,
To pray for the singer of this song,
For he sings to make blythe your cheer.
112 MINSTRELSY OF
BARTHRAM'S DIRGE.
The following- beautiful fragment was taken down by
Mr Surtees, from the recitation of Anne Douglas, an
old woman, who weeded in his garden. It is imper-
fect, and the words within brackets were inserted by
my correspondent, to supply such stanzas as the chan-
tress's memory left defective. The hero of the ditty, if
the reciter be correct, was shot to death by nine bro-
thers, whose sister he had seduced, but was afterwards
buried at her request, near their usual place of meet-
ing- ; which may account for his being- laid, not in holy
ground, but beside the burn. The name of Barthram,
or Bertram, would argue a Northumbrian origin, and
there is, or was, a Headless Cross, among- many so
named, near Elsdon in Northumberland. But the men-
tion of the Nine-Stane Burn, and Nine-Stane Rig-,
seems to refer to those places in the vicinity of Her-
mitage Castle,^ which is countenanced by the men-
tioning our Lady's Chapel. Perhaps the hero may have
been an Englishman, and the lady a native of Scotland,
^ See the Ballad of Lord Soulis, post.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 113
which renders the catastrophe even more probable. The
style of the ballad is rather Scottish than Northum-
brian. They certainly did bury in former days near the
Nine-Stane Burn ; for the Editor remembers finding- a
small monumental cross, with initials lying among- the
heather. It was so small, that, with the assistance of
another gentleman, he easily placed it upright.
' i'V'i' wC-^^wy i.C^'"^ „--^ 'V%---
VOL, II.
114 MINSTRELSY OF
BARTHRAM'S DIRGE.
They shot liim dead at the Nine-Stone Rig,
Beside the Headless Cross,
And they left him lying- in his blood,
Upon the moor and moss.
They made a bier of the broken boug-h,
The sauch and the aspin gray,
And they bore him to the Lady Chapel,
And waked him there all day.
A lady came to that lonely bower,
And threw her robes aside.
She tore her ling- [long-] yellow hair,
And knelt at Barthram's side.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 115
She bathed him in the Lady- Well
His wounds so deep and sair,
And she plaited a g-arland for his breast,
And a g-arland for his hair.
They rowed him in a lily-sheet,
And bare him to his earth,
[And the Gray Friars sung; the dead man's mass,
As they pass'd the Chapel Garth.]
They buried him at [the mirk] midnight,
[When the dew fell cold and still,
When the aspin g-ray forg-ot to play,
And the mist clung to the hill.]
They dug- his grave but a bare foot deep,
By the edge of the Ninestone Burn,
And they covered him [o'er with the heather-flower,]
The moss and the [Lady] fern.
A Gray Friar staid upon the grave,
And sang- till the morning- tide,
And a friar shall sing for Barthram's soul,
While the Headless Cross shall bide.^
1 Mr Surtees observes, on tliis passage, that in tlie return made
hy tlie commissioners, on the dissolution of Newminster Abbey,
there is an item of a Chauntery, for one priest to sing daily ad cru-
cem lapideam. Probably many of these crosses had the hke expi-
atory solemnities for persons slain there.
116 MINSTRELSY OF
ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD.
It may perhaps be thoiiglit, that, from the near resem-
blance which this ballad bears to Kinmont Willie, and
Jock o' the Side, the Editor might have dispensed with
inserting it in this collection. But although the incidents
in these three ballads are almost the same, yet there is
considerable variety in the language ; and each contains
minute particulars, highly characteristic of Border man-
ners, which it is the object of this publication to illus-
trate. Ca'field, or Calfield, is a place in Wauchopdale,
l)elonging of old to the Armstrongs. In the account
betwixt the English and Scottish Marches, Jock and
Geordie of Ca'field, there called Calf -hill, are repeatedly
marked as dehnquents. — History of Westmoreland and
Cumberland, vol. i. Introduction, p. 33.
The Editor has been enabled to add several stanzas
to this ballad, since publication of the first edition.
They were obtained from recitation ; and, as they con-
trast the brutal indifference of the elder brother with
the zeal and spirit of his associates, they add consider-
ably to the dramatic effect of the whole.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 117
ARCHIE OF CA'FIELD,
As I was a-walking mine alane,
It was by the dawning- of tlie day,
I heard twa brithers make their mane,
And I listen'd weel to what they did say
The youngest to the eldest said,
" Blythe and merrie hovy can we be ?
There were three brithren of us born,
And ane of us is condemn'd to die." —
" An ye wad be merrie, an ye wad be sad,
What the better wad billy ^ Archie be ?
Unless I had thirty men to mysell.
And a' to ride in my cumpanie.
" Ten to hald the horses' heads.
And other ten the watch to be,
And ten to break up the strong- prison,
Where billy Archie he does lie." —
1 ^;7Z^— Brother.
118 MINSTRELSY OF
Then up and spak him mettled John Hall,^
(The hive of Teviotdale aye was he,)
" An I had eleven men to mysell,
It's aye the twalt man I wad be." —
Then up bespak him coarse Ca'field,
(I wot and little gude worth was he.)
" Thirty men is few anew,
And a' to ride in our companie." —
There was horsing-, horsing- in haste,
And there was marching- on the lee ;
Until they cam to Murraywhate,
And they lighted there right speedilie.
" A smith ! a smith ! " Dickie he cries,
" A smith, a smith, right speedihe.
To turn back the cankers of our horses' shoon !
For it's unkensome" we wad be." —
Will shoe my little black mare for me ;
And I've a crown in my pocket.
And every g-roat of it I wad g'ie." —
^ MettledJokn Hall, from tlie laigli Teviotdale, is perhaps John
Hall of Newbigging, mentioned in the list of Border clans, as one-
of the chief men of name residing on the jMiddle Marches in 1597.
^ Unkensome — Unknown.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 119
" The night is mirk, and it's very mirk,
And by candle-light I canna weel see ;
Tlie night is mirk, and it's very pit mirk.
And there will never a nail ca' right for me." —
" Shame fa' you and your trade baith,
Canna beet^ a good fellow by your mystery "
But leeze me on thee, mv little black mare,
Thou's worth thy weight in g-old to me." —
There was horsing-, horsing- in haste.
And there was marching- upon the lee ;
Until they cam to Dumfries port.
And they lighted there right speedilie.
" There's five of us will hold the horse,
And other five will watchmen be :
But wha's the man among- ye a'.
Will g-ae to the Tolbooth door wi' me ? " —
O up then spak him mettled John Hall,
(Frae the Laig-h Teviotdale was he,)
"' If it should cost my life this very nig-ht,
I'll gae to the Tolbooth door wi' thee." —
to'
" Be of gude cheir, now, Archie, lad !
Be of g-ude cheir, now, dear billie !
^ Beet — Abet, aid. — ^Mystery — Trade. See Shakspear(
120 MINSTRELSY OF
Work thou within, and we without,
And the morn thou'se dine at Ca'field Avi' me."-—
O Jockie Hall stepp'd to the door.
And he bended low back his knee,
And he made the bolts, the door hang" on,
Loup frae the wa' right wantonlie.
He took the prisoner on his back,
And down the Tolbooth stair cam he :
The black mare stood ready at the door,
I wot a foot ne'er stirred she.
They laid the links out owre her neck,
And that was her gold twist to be ;^
And they cam doun thro' Dumfries toun.
And wow but they cam speedilie.
The live-lang night these twelve men rade,
And aye till they were right wearie.
Until they cam to the Murraywhate,
And they lighted there right speedilie.
" A smith ! a smith !" then Dickie he cries,
" A smith, a smith, right speedihe.
To tile the irons frae my dear brither !
For forward, forward we wad be." —
^ Tlie Gold Twist means tlie small gilded chains drawn across
the chest of a war-horse, as a part of his caparison.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 121
They hadna filed a shackle of iron,
A shackle of iron but barely thrie,
When out and spak young- Simon brave,
" O dinna you see what I do see ?
" Lo ! yonder comes Lieutenant Gordon,
Wi' a hundred men in his companie ;
This night will be our lyke-wake nig-ht,
The morn the day we a' maun die." —
O there was mounting-, mounting in haste,
And there was marching- upon the lee ;
Until they cam to Annan water.
And it was flowing like the sea.
" My mare is young and very skeigh,^
And in o' the weil~ she will drown me ;
But ye'll take mine, and I'll take thine.
And sune through the water we sail be." — .
Then up and spak him, coarse Ca'field,
(I wot and little gude worth was he,)
" We had better lose ane than lose a' the lave ;
We'll lose the prisoner, ^A^e'll gae free." —
" Shame fa' you and your lands baith !
Wad ye e'en^ your lands to your born billy ?
^ Skeigh — Shy — ^Weil—Eddy '^ JE'eti— Even; put into com-
parison.
122 MINSTRELSY OF
But liey ! bear up, my bonnie black mare,
And yet tliro' the water we sail be." —
Now they did swim that wan water,
And wow but they swam bonnilie !
Until they cam to the other side.
And they wrang- their cloathes rig-ht drunkily.
" Come thro', come thro', Lieutenant Gordon !
Come thro' and drink some wine wi' me !
For there is an ale-house here hard by.
And it shall not cost thee ae penny." —
" Throw me my irons," quo' Lieutenant Gordon ;
" I wot they cost me dear eneugh." —
" The shame a ma," quo' mettled John Ha',
" They'll be gude shackles to my pleugii." —
" Come thro', come thro'. Lieutenant Gordon !
Come thro' and drink some wine wi' me !
Yestreen I was your prisoner.
But now this morning- am I free."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 123
ARMSTRONG'S GOODNIGHT.
TJw follo2ving verses are said to have been composed by one of
the Armstrongs, executed for the murder of Sir John
Carmichael of Edrom, Warden of the Middle Marches.
{See Notes on the Raid of the Reidsivire — ante.) The
tune is popular in Scotland ; but ivhether these are the ori-
ginal words, zuill admit of a doubt.
This nig-ht is my departing" night,
For here nae langer must I stay ;
There's neither friend nor foe o' mine,
But wishes me away.
What I have done thro' lack of wit,
I never, never can recall ;
I hope ye're a' my friends as yet ;
Goodnig'ht and joy be with you all !^
' [" The music of the most accomphshed singer," says Gold-
smith, in his Essays, " is dissonance, to what I felt when an old
dairy-maid sang me into tears with Johnie Armstrong's Last
Goodnight. " — Ed . ]
- [iMr Buchan gives what he considers a better copy of these
verses, in his Ancient Ballads, vol. 11. p. 129. But those stanzas
are hardly entitled to disturb the impression of the beautiful frag-
ment in the text. — Ed. J
124 MINSTRELSY OF
THE FRAY OF SUPORT.
AN ANCIENT BORDER GATHERING SONG.
FROM TRADITION.
Of all the Border ditties, whicli have fallen into the
Editor's hands, this is by far the most uncouth and
savage. It is usually chanted in a sort of wild recita-
tive, except the burden, which swells into a long- and
varied howl, not unlike to a view hollo'. The words,
and the very great irregularity of the stanza (if it de-
serves the name) sufficiently point out its intention
and origin. An English woman, residing in Suport,
near the foot of the Kers-hope, having been plundered
in the night by a band of the Scottish moss-troopers,
is supposed to convoke her servants and friends for the
pursuit, or Hot Trod ; upbraiding them, at the same
time, in homely phrase, for their negligence and security.
The Hot Trod was followed by the persons who had lost
goods, with blood-hounds and horns, to raise the coun-
try to help. They also used to carry a burning wisp
of straw at a spear head, and to raise a cry, similar to
the Indian war-whoop. It appears, from articles made
by the Wardens of the English Marches, September
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 125
12th, in 6tli of Edward VI., that all, on this cry being
raised, were obliged to follow the fray, or chase, under
pain of death. With these explanations, the general
purport of the ballad may be easily discovered, though
particular passages have become inexplicable, probably
through corruptions introduced by reciters. The pre-
sent text is collected from four copies, which differed
widely from each other.
126 MINSTRELSY OF
THE FRAY OF SUPORT.
Sleep'ry Sim of the Lamb-hill,
And snoring- Jock of Suport-mill,
Ye are baith right het and fou' ; —
But my wae wakens na joii.
Last night I saw a sorry sight —
Nought left me o* four-and-twenty gude ousen and ky,
My weel-ridden gelding, and a white quey,
But a toom byre^ and a wide,
And the twelve nogs^ on ilka side.
Fy, lads I shout a' a' a' a' a',
My gear's a' gane.
Weel may ye ken.
Last night I was right scarce o' men :
But Toppet Hob o' the Mains had guesten'd in my
house by chance ;
I set him to wear the fore-door wi' the speir, while I
kept the back-door wi' the lance ;
* Toom hyre — Empty cowhouse ~ Nogs — Stakes.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 127
But they hae run him thro' the thick o' the thie, and
broke his knee-pan,
And the mergh^ o' his shin-bane has run down on his
spur-leather whang :
He's lame while he lives, and where'er he mav g-ano-.
Fy, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a',
My gear's a' g-ane.
But Peenye, my gude son, is out at the Hagbut-head,
His een glittering for anger like a fiery gleed ; "
Crying — " Mak sure the nooks
Of Maky's-muir crooks ;
For the wily Scot takes by nooks, hooks, and crooks.
Gin we meet a' together in a head the morn,
We'll be merry men."
Fy, lads ! shout a* a* a' a' a',
My gear's a' gane.
There's doughty Cuddy in the Heugh-head,
Thou was aye gude at a need :
With thy brock-skin bag^ at thy belt.
Aye ready to mak a puir man help.
Thou maun awa' out to the Cauf-craig-s,
(Where anes ye lost your ain twa naigs,)
And there toom thy brock-skin bag.
Fy, lads I shout a' a' a' a' a',
My gear's a' ta'en.
^ Merffh—U^rrovf 2 p;^^^ gked—a. bar of iron c/Iowv/ff on the
anvil — 3 The badger-skin pouch was used for carrying ammunition.
128 MINSTRELSY OF
Doug-laty Dan o' tlie Hoiilet Hirst,
Thou was aye gude at a birst :
Glide wi' a bow, and better wi' a speir.
The bauldest March-man that e'er follow'd g'ear ;
Come thou here.
Fy, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a'.
My g-ear's a' gane.
Hise, ye carle coopers, frae making o' kirns and tubs,
In the Nicol forest woods. ^
Your craft hasna left the value of an oak rod,
But if you had ony fear o' God,
Last night ye hadna slept sae sound.
And let my gear be a' ta'en.
Fy, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a'.
My gear's a' ta'en.
Ah ! lads, we'll fang them a' in a net.
For I hae a' the fords o' Liddel set ;^
The Dunkin and the Door-loup,
The Willie-ford, and the Water-slack,
The Black-rack and the Trout-dub of Liddel ;
There stands John Forster, wi' five men at his back,
Wi bufft coat and cap of steil ;
^ A wood in Cumberland, in wliicli Suport is situated.
^ Watching fords Avas a ready mode of intercepting tlie marau-
ders ; the names of the most noted fords upon the Liddel are re-
cited in this verse.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 129
Boo ! ca' at them e'en, Jock ;
That ford's sicker,^ I wat weil.
Fy, kids ! shout a' a' a' a' a',
My gear's a' ta'en.
Hoo ! hoo ! gar raise the Reid Souter, and Rino-an's
Wat,
Wi' a broad elshin^ and a wicker ;
I wat weil they'll mak a ford sicker.
Sae, whether they be Elliots or Armstrangs,
Or rong-h-riding- Scots, or rude Johnstones,
Or Avhether they be frae the Tarras or Ewsdale,
They maun turn and light, or try the deeps o' Li(klel.
Fy, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a'.
My g-ear's a' ta'en.
" Ah ! but they will play ye anither jigg-,
For they will out at the biff ric.
And thro' at Fargy Grame's gap." ^
But I hae another wile for that :
For I hae little Will, and Stalwart W^at,
And lang- Aicky, in the Souter Moor,
Wi' his sleuth-dog- sits in his watch right sure;*
' Sicker—Secme s Ehhin~A shoemaker's awl.
^ Fergus Grame of Sowport, as one of the chief ni.n of that
clan, became security to Lord Scroope for the good behaviour of
his friends and dependents, 8th January, 16Q2. ^Introduction to
History of Westmoreland a?id Cumberland, p. 111.
•* See Note A, p. 131.
VOL. ir. I
130 MINSTRELSY OF
Sliou'd the dog- gie a bark,
He'll be out in his sark,^
And die or won.
Fv, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a*,
My g-ear's a' ta'en.
Ha ! boys ! — I see a party appearing — wha's yon ?
Methinks it's the Captain of Bewcastle,^ and Jephtha's
John,
Coming- down by the foul steps of Catlowdie's loan : ^
They'll make a' sicker, come which way they will.
Ha, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a',
My g-ear's a' ta'en
Captain Musgrave,^' and a' his band.
Are coming down by the Siller-strand,
And the Muckle toun-bell o' Carlisle is rung :
My gear was a' weel won.
And before it's carried o'er the Border, mony a man's
gae down.
Fy, lads ! shout a' a' a' a' a',
My gear's a' gane.
1 .Sar^— Shirt.
^ According to the late Glenrlddel's notes on this ballad, the
office of Captain of Bewcastle was held by the chief of the Nixons.
^ Catlovvdie is a small village in Cumberland, near the junction
of the Esk and Liddel.
* This was probably the famous Captain Jack Musgrave, who
had charge of the watch along the Cryssop, or Kershope, as ap-
pears from the order of the watches appointed by Lord Wharton,
when Deputy -Warden- General, in the 6th Edward VI.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. l,]!
APPENDIX.
Wi' his sleuth-doff sits in his watch right sure.
Note A.
P. 129, botton
Bo^d? C I "\\ '" *^' ^''^"^ ^^"^' "-« P^-ted upon tho
Bord r each n,gH had usually sleuth-dogs, or blood-hound^ alon.
2's r'T?^ ^^-Ho.sox's ^o.^.. Xa.., and LoK. Wh.k!
TON s Regulations tn the 6th of Edward VI.
poet>^descnpt,„c of the qualities and use, of .^ singular ani:
^f„, ^ , ■ "Upon the banks
Of 1 weed, slow windings thro' the vale, the seat
Of war and rapine once, ere Britons knew
The sweets of peace, or Anna's dread commands
lo lasting leagues the haughty rivals awed
There dwelt a pilfering race ; well train'd and skiii'd
In all the mysteries of theft, the spoil
Their only substance, feuds and war their snort
Not more expert in every fraudful art
The arch felon was of old, who by the tail
Drew back his lowing prize : in vain his wiles
In vain the shelter of the covering rock
In vain the sooty cloud and ruddy flame's
Tliat issued from his mouth ; for soon he paid
His forfeit life ; a debt how justly due
To wrong'd Alcides, and avenging Heaven!
Veil'd in the shades of night they ford the stream;
132 MINSTRELSY OF
Then, prowling^ far and near, wliate'er they seize
Becomes their prey ; nor flocks nor herds are safe.
Nor stalls protect the steer, nor strong- barr'd doors
Secure the favourite horse. Soon as the morn
Reveals his wrongs, with ghastly visage wan
The plunder'd OAvner stands, and from his lips
A thousand thronging curses burst their way.
He calls his stout allies, and in a line
His faithful hounds he leads ; then, with a voice
That utters loud his rage, attentive cheers.
Soon the sagacious brute, his curling tail
Flourish'd in air, low bending, plies around
His busy nose, the steaming vapour snuffs
Inquisitive, nor leaves one turf untried :
Till, conscious of the recent stains, his heart
Beats quick, his snuffling nose, his active tail.
Attest his joy ; then, with deep-opening mouth
That makes the welkin tremble, he proclaims
The audacious felou ! foot by foot he marks
His winding way, while all the listening crowd
Applaud his reasonings. O'er the watery ford.
Dry sandy heaths and stony barren hills.
O'er beaten tracks, with men and beast distain'd.
Unerring he pursues; till, at the cot
Arrived, and seizing by his guilty throat
The caitiff vile, redeems the captive prey ;
So exquisitely delicate his sense ! "
So.merville's Chase.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 133
LORD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT.
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
This beautiful ballad is published from a copy in
Glenriddel's MSS., with some slight variations from
tradition. It alludes to one of the most remarkable
feuds upon the West Marches.
A. D. 1585, John Lord Maxwell, or, as he styled
himself. Earl of Morton, having- quarrelled with the
Earl of Arran, reigning- favourite of James VI., and
fallen, of course, under the displeasure of the court,
was denounced rebel. A commission was also given
to the Laird of Johnstone, then Warden of the West
Marches, to pursue and apprehend the ancient rival
and enemy of his house. Two bands of mercenaries,
commanded by Captains Cranstoim and Lammie, who
were sent from Edinburgh to support Johnstone, were
attacked and cut to pieces at Crawford-muir, by Robert
Maxwell, natural brother to the chieftain;^ who, fol-
^ It is devoutly to be wislied, that this Lammie (who was killed
la the skirmish) may have been the same miscreant, who, in the
134 MINSTRELSY OF
lowing- up his advantage, burned Johnstone's Castle of
iLochwood, observing, with savage glee, that he would
g-ive Lady Johnstone light enough by which " to set her
hood." In a subsequent conflict, Johnstone himself
was defeated, and made prisoner, and is said to have
died of grief at the disgrace which he sustained See
Spottiswoode and Johnstone's Histories, and
Moyse's Memoirs, ad annum 1585.
By one of the revolutions, common in those days,
Maxwell was soon after restored to the King's favour
in his turn, and obtained the wardenry of the West
Marches. A bond of alliance was subscribed by him,
and by Sir James Johnstone, and for some time the
two clans lived in harmony. In the year 1593, how-
ever, the hereditary feud was revived, on the following
occasion : A band of marauders, of the clan Johnstone,
drove a prey of cattle from the lands belonging to the
Lairds of Crichton, Sanquhar, and Drumlanrig ; and
defeated, with slaughter, the pursuers, who attempted
to rescue their property. — \_See the Lads of Warn,'
2)liray, post, p. 1 48.] The injured parties, being appre-
hensive that Maxwell would not cordially embrace their
cause, on account of his late reconciliation with the
<lay of Queen Mary's distress, " hes ensign being of quhyt taffitae,
liad painted one it ye cruell murther of King Henry, and layed
down before her Majestie, at qubat time she presented herself as
prisoner to ye lordis." — Birrel's Z)/a?'y, June 15, 1567. It
"would be some satisfaction to know, that the grey hairs of tliis wor-
thy personage did not go down to the grave in peace.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 135
Johnstones, endeavoured to overcome his reluctance,
by offering to enter into bonds of manrent, and so to
become his followers and liegemen; he, on the other
band, granting- to them a bond of maintenance, or pro-
tection, by which he bound himself, in usual form, to
maintain their quarrel against all mortals, saving his
loyalty. Thus, the most powerful and respectable
families in Dumfries-shire, became, for a time, the
vassals of Lord Maxwell. This secret alliance was
discovered to Sir James Johnstone by the Laird of Cum-
mertrees, one of his own clan, though a retainer to
Maxwell. Cummertrees even contrived to possess him-
self of the bonds of manrent, which he delivered to his
chief. The petty warfare betwixt the rival barons was
instantly renewed. Buccleuch, a near relation of John-
stone, came to his assistance with his clan, " the most
renowned freebooters, [says a historian,] the fiercest and
bravest warriors among the Border tribes."^ With Buc-
cleuch also came the Elliots, Armstrongs, and Graemes.
Thus reinforced, Johnstone surprised and cut to pieces
a party of the Maxwells, stationed at Lochmaben. On
the other hand, Lord Maxwell, armed with the royal
authority, and numbering among his followers all the
barons of Nithsdale, displayed his banner as the King's
lieutenant, and invaded Annandale at the head of 2000
men. In those days, however, the royal auspices seem
' ''^ Inter accolas latrociniis famosos, Scotos JBuccleuchi cUentes — .
fortissimos trihuliam et ferocissimos." — Johnstoni Historia, Ed.
Amstcd. p. 182,
136 MINSTRELSY OF
to have carried as little good fortune as effective strength
with them. A desperate conflict, still renowned in tra-
dition, took place at the Dryffe Sands, not far from
Lockerby, in which Johnstone, although inferior in
numbers, jDartly by his own conduct, partly by the va-
lour of his allies, gained a decisive victory. Lord Max-
well, a tall man, and heavily armed, was struck from
his horse in the flight, and cruelly slain, after the hand,
which he stretched out for quarter, had been severed
from his body. Many of his followers were slain in the
battle, and many cruelly wounded, especially by slashes
in the face, which wound was thence termed a ^'■Lockev-
hy lickr The Barons of Lag, Closeburn, and Drum- .
lanrig-, escaped by the fleetness of their horses ; a cir-
cumstance alluded to in the following ballad.
This fatal battle was followed by a long- feud, attended
with all the circumstances of horror proper to a barba-
rous age. Johnstone, in his diffuse manner, describes it
thus : " Ah eo die ultra citroque in Annandia et
Nitlim magnis utriusque regionis jacturis cevtatum,
Ccedes^ incendia^ ^^ajmice, et nefanda facinora ; liheri
in maternis gremiis trucidati, mariti in conspectu
conjugum suarum ; incensce villas; lamentahiles uhi-
que querimonice^ et hoy^rihiles armorum fremitus,'''
— JoHNSTONi Historia, Ed, Amstcel. p. 182.
John, Lord Maxwell, with whose Goodnight the
reader is here presented, was son to him who fell at
the battle of Dryffe Sands, and is said to have early
avowed the deepest revenge for his father's death.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 137
Such, indeed, was the Hery and untameable spirit of the
man, that neither the threats nor entreaties of the Kino-
himself could make him lay aside his vindictive pur-
pose; although Johnstone, the object of his resent-
ment, had not only reconciled himself to the court, but
even obtained the wardenry of the Middle Marches,
in room of Sir John Carmichael, murdered by the Arm-
strongs. Lord Maxwell was therefore prohibited to
approach the Border counties ; and having-, in con-
tempt of that mandate, excited new disturbances, he
was confined in the castle of Edinburgh. From this
fortress, however, he contrived to make his escape ;
and, having- repaired to Dumfries-shire, he sought an
amicable interview with Johnstone, under a pretence of
a wish to accommodate their differences. Sir Robert
Maxwell, of Orchardstane, (mentioned in the Ballad,
verse 1,) who was married to a sister of Sir James
Johnstone, persuaded his brother-in-law to accede to
Maxwell's proposal. The following relation of what
followed is taken from an article in Shawfield's MS.,
mentioned in the introduction to the ballad called Kin-
Qnont Willie: —
" The simple truth and cause of the treasonable mur-
ther of umqnhile Sir James Johnstoun of Dunskellie,
knight, was as efter followes. To wit, John Lord
Maxwell having dealt and useit his best means with
some nobilemen and baronnes within the cuntrey, and
likeways with sundrie of the name of Maxwell, being-
refuised of them all to be partakers of so foull ane
2
138 MINSTRELSY OF
deed ; till at last he unhappily persuaded one Charles
Maxwell, one of the brether of Kirkhouse, to he with
him, and having made him assuired to be pairtner in
that treasonable plot : therefore, taking advantage of
the weakness and unabilitie of umquhill Sir Robert
Maxwell of Orchyardtoun, knight, presuming that he
had power of the said Sir James, being brother-in-law
to him, to bring him to anye part he pleased ; Max-
well, pretending he had special busines to do with Sir
James, hearing he was going from the court of Eng-
land, so gave out by reasoun he was the king's rebeil
for the time, for breaking weird out of the castle of
Edinburgh, that he had no other houpes to obtaine the
King's favour but be his meanes. So upon this pre-
tence, the said Sir James was moved to meet him at
Auchnamhill, near by Arthorstane, without the house
of Bent, upon the 6th Aprile, 1608, with one man onlie
with him as was with the uther, therselves two onlie
and the forsaid Sir Robert Maxwell with tliem, and
their servantes being a little off. The forsaid Charles
falls out with opprobrious and malicious speeches to
Sir James his servant, Wilham Johnstoune of Gun-
menlie, and before he was aware shott him with ane
pistoU. Sir James hearing the shott and his man's
words, turning about to see what was past, immediate-
lie Maxwell shott him behind his back with ane pistoll
chairgit with two poysonit bulletts, at which shott the
said Sir James fell from his horse. Maxwell not being
content therewith, raid about him ane lang tyme, and
THE SCOTTISH BOEDER. 139
persued liim farder, vowing- to use him more cruelly
and treacherouslie than he had done, for which it is
known sufficiently what followed." — " A fact," saith
Spottiswoode, " detested by all honest men, and the
gentleman's misfortune severely lamented, for he was a
man full of wisdom and courage." — Spottiswoode,
Edition 1677, pp. 467, 504. Johnstoni Historia,
Ed. A^nstcBl 23p. 254, 283, 449.
Lord Maxwell, the murderer, made his esca])e to
France ; hut having- ventured to return to Scotland, he
was apprehended lurking- in the wilds of Caithness, and
brought to trial at Edinburgh. The royal authority
was now much strengthened by the union of the
crowns, and James employed it in stanching- the feuds
of the nobility, with a firmness which was no attribute
of his g-eneral character. But in the best actions of
that monarch, there seems to have been an unfortunate
tmcture of that meanness, so visible on the present oc-
casion. Lord Maxwell was indicted for the murder of
Johnstone ; but this was combined with a charge of
fire-raising, which, according- to the ancient Scottish
law, if perpetrated by a landed man, constituted a spe-
cies of treason, and inferred forfeiture. Thus the noble
purpose of pubhc justice was sullied by being- united
with that of enriching- some needy favourite. John,
Lord Maxwell, was condemned, and beheaded, 21st
May, 1613. Sir Gideon Murray, treasurer-depute,
had a great share of his forfeiture ; but the attainder
was afterwards reversed, and the honours and estate
140 MINSTRELSY OF
were conferred upon the brother of the deceased.
— Laing's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 62 — John-
STONi Historia, p. 493.
The lady mentioned in the ballad, was sister to the
Marquis of Hamilton, and, according- to Johnstone
the historian, had little reason to regret being- separated
from her husband, whose harsh treatment finally occa-
sioned her death. But Johnstone appears not to be
altogether untinctured with the prejudices of his clan,
and is probably, in this instance, guilty of exag-geration ;
as the active share taken by the Marquis of Hamilton
in favour of Maxwell, is a circumstance inconsistent
with such a report.
Thus was finally ended, by a salutary example of se-
verity, the " foul debate" betwixt the Maxwells and
Johnstones, in the course of which each family lost two
chieftains ; one dying of a broken heart, one in the field
of battle, one by assassination, and one by the sword of
the executioner.
It seems reasonable to believe, that the following-
ballad must have been written before the death of Lord
Maxwell, in 1613 ; otherwise there would have been
some allusion to that event. It must therefore have
been composed betwixt 1608 and that period.
VOCE.
THE LORD MAXWELL'S GOOD NIGHT.
A - dieu Madame, my mother dear, B ut
PIANO
FORTE.
j^^^P
^^
d£:
andmy ,i„e„ ,i,,,.e, 0; A . . dieu ! fair Robon of
1^
^
Vol. n
Lord Max Will.
THE LORD MAXWELL'S GOOD NIGHT, CONTINUED.
■±
i
s
ei- I »
Orchardstane, M y heart is wae for tbee, O.
^3
$
m — 9-
I
3T-b
i
i
^
bt«
Lord Ma\uxn.
v.; I,, ii".
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 141
LORD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT.^
" Adieu, madame, my mother dear,
But and my sisters three !
Adieu, fair Robert of Orchardstane I
My heart is wae for thee.
Adieu, the lily and the rose,
The primrose fair to see ;
Adieu, my ladye, and only joy !
For I may not stay with thee.
" Though I hae slain the Lord Johnstone,
What care I for their feid ?
My noble mind their wrath disdains, —
He was my father's deid.
Both night and day I labour'd oft
Of him avenged to be ;
But now I've got what lang- I sought.
And I may not stay with thee.
" Adieu! Drumlanrig, false wert aye,
And Closeburn in a band I ^
' [ Lord Byron refers to this ballad, as having suggested the
Goodnight in the Tst Canto of Childe Harold. See Life and Works
of Byron, vol. viii. — Ed,] — '' See jN'ote A, p. 144.
142 MINSTRELSY OF
The Laird of Lag-, frae my father that fled,
When the Johnston struck aff his hand.
They were three brethren in a band —
Joy may they never see !
Their treacherous art, and cowardly heart,
Has twined my love and me.
" Adieu ! Dumfries, my proper place,
But and Carlaverock fair !
Adieu ! my castle of the Thrieve,^
Wi' a' my buildings there :
Adieu ! Lochmaben's g-ate sae fair.
The Langholm-holm, where birks there l)e ;
Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy,
For, trust me, I may not stay wi' thee.
*' Adieu ! fair Eskdale up and down,
Wliere my puir friends do dwell ;
The bangisters ~ will ding- them down,
And will them sair compell.
But I'll avenge their feid mysell,
When I come o'er the sea ;
Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy.
For I may not stay wi' thee." —
" Lord of the land !" — that ladye said,
" O wad ye go wi' me.
Unto my brother's stately tower,
Where safest ye may be !
J See Note B, p. 146 — ^ BaTiffisters—The prevailing paitv
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 143
There Hamiltons, and Douglas baitb,
Shall rise to succour thee." —
" Thanks for thy kindness, fair my dame,
But I may not stay wi' thee." —
Then he tuik aff a g-ay gold ring,
Thereat hang signets three ;
" Hae, tak thee that, mine ain dear thing,
And still hae mind o' me :
But if thou take another lord,
Ere I come ower the sea —
His life is but a three days' lease,
Though I may not stay wi' thee." —
The wind was fair, the ship was clear,
That good lord went away ;
And most part of his friends were there/
To give him a fair convey.
They drank the wine, they didna spair,
Even in that gude lord's sight —
Sae now he's o'er the floods sae gray,"
And Lord Maxwell has ta'en his Goodnight.
^ The ancestor of tlie present IMr IMaxwell of Broomliolm is par-
ticularly mentioned in Glenriddel's MS. as lia^dng attended his
chieftain in his distress, and as having received a grant of lau.ls, iu
reward of this manifestation of attachment.
^ This seems to have been a favourite epithet in old romances.
Thus in Hornchilde, and Maiden Rimuild,
" Thai sayled ower ihcjlocle so gray^
In Inglond arrived were thay,
Tlier him leye&t ware."
144 MINSTRELSY OF
APPENDIX.
Note A.
Adieu/ Drunilanrig, §'c. — P. 141, v. 3.
The reader will perceive, from the Introduction, what connexion
the bond, subscribed by Douglas of Drunilanrig, Kirkpatrick of
Closeburn, and Grierson of Lagg, had with the death of Lord Max-
well's father. For the satisfaction of those who may be curious as-
to the form of these bonds, I have transcribed a letter of manrent,*
from a IMS. collection of upwards of twenty deeds of that nature,
copied from the originals by the late John Syme, Esq., writer to
the signet ; for the use of which, with many other favours of a similar
nature, I am indebted to Dr Robert Anderson of Edinburgh. The
bond is granted by Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, to Robert
Lord IMaxwell, father of liim who was slain at the battle of the
Dryffe Sands.
BOND OF MANRENT.
"Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres, me, Thomas
Kirkpatrick of Closburn, to be bundin and oblist, and be the tenor
heirof, bindis and obllssis me, be the faith and treuth of my body,
* The proper spelling is manred. Thus, in the romauce of Florice
and Blancliefioure —
" He w'il falle to thi fot.
And bicom thi man g-if he mot;
His manred thou schalt afonge,
And the trewthe of his honde."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 145
in manrent and service to aae nobU and mychty lord, Robert Lord
j\Iaxwell, induring aU the dayis of my lyfe ; and byndis and oblissis
me, as said is, to be leil and trew man and servant to the said Ro-
bert Lord iMaxwell, my master, and saU nowtbir heir nor se his
skaith, but sail lat the samyn at my utir power, an warn him
therof. And I sail conceill it that the said lord schawis to me,
and sail gif him agane the best leiU and true counsale that I can,
quhen he only askis at me ; and that I sail ryde with my kyn,'
freyndis, servandis, and allies, that wil do for me, or to gang with
the said lord ; and to do him sefauld, trew, and thankful service,
and take ^auld plane part with the said lord, mvmaister, in all and
sindry his actionis, causis, quarrellis, leful and honest, movit, or to
be movit, be him, or aganis him, baith in peace and weir, contrair
or aganis all thae thatleiffes or de may (my allegeance to owr sove-
ran ladye the quenis grace, her tutor and governor, allanerly ex-
cept.) And thir my lettres of manrent, for all the dayis of my bfe
foresaid to indure, all dissimulations, fraud, or gyle, secludit and
away put. In witness," &c. The deed is signed at Edinburgh, 3d
February, 1542.
In the collection, from which this extract is made, there are
^onds of a similar nature granted to Lord MaxweU, by Douglas of
Drumlanrig, ancestor to the Dukes of Queensberry; by Crichton
Lord Sanquhar, ancestor of the Earls of Dumfries, and many of
liis kindred; by Stuart of Castlemilk ; by Stuart of Garlies, an-
cestor of the Earls of GaUoway ; by Murray of Cockpool, ancestor
of the Murrays, Lords Annandale ; by Grierson of Lagg, Gordon
of Lochmaben, and many other of the most ancient and respectable
barons m the south-west of Scotland, binding themselves, in the
most submissive terms, to become the liegemen and the vassals of
the house of MaxweU ; a circumstance which must highly excite
our Idea of the power of that family. Nay, even the rival chief-
tam, Johnstone of Johnstone, seems at one time to have come un-
der a similar obligation to INIaxweU, by a bond, dated 11th Febru-
ary, 1528, in which reference is made to the counter-obligation of
the patron, in these words : " Forasmeikle as the said lord has
obhst him to supple, maintene, and defend me, in the peciabill
broulang and joysing of all my landis, rentis, &c., and to take mv
VOL II. J-
146 MINSTRELSY OF
aefald, leill, and trew part, in all my good actionls, causis, and
quarles, leiful and lionest, aganes all deedlie, liis alledgeance to Cur
soveraigne lord tlie king allanerly excepted, as at mair length is con-
tained in his lettres of maintenance maid to me therupon ; there-
fore," &c. he proceeds to bind himself as liegeman to the Maxwell.
I cannot dismiss the subject without observing, that, in the dan-
gerous times of Queen Mary, when most of these bonds are dated,
many barons, for the sake of maintaining unanimity and good order,
may have chosen to enrol themselves among the clients of Lord
Maxwell, then Warden of the Border, from which, at a less tur-
bulent period, personal considerations would have deterred them.
Note B.
Adieu! my castle of the TJirievc, ^c P. 142, v. 2.
This fortress is situated in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, upon
an island several acres in extent, formed by the river Dee. The
walls are very thick and strong, and bear the marks of great anti-
quity. It was a royal castle ; but the keeping of it, agreeable to
the feudal practice, was granted by charter, or sometimes by a more
temporary and precarious right, to different powerful families, toge-
ther with lands for their good service in maintaining and defending
the place. This office of heritable keeper remained v:\t\v the Nithes-
dale family (chief of the Maxwells) till their forfeiture, 1715. The
garrison seems to have been victualled upon feudal principles ; for
each parish in the stewartry was burdened with the yearly payment
of a lardner mart cow, i. e. a cow fit for being killed and salted at
Martinmas, for winter provisions. The right of levying these cat-
tle was retained by the Nithesdale family, when they sold the castle
and estate, in 1704, and they did not cease to exercise it till their
attainder Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p, 688.
This same castle of the Thrieve was, A.D. 1451-2, the scene
of an outrageous and cruel insult upon the royal authority. The
fortress was then held by William VIII. Earl of Douglas, who, in
fact, possessed a more unlimited authority over the southern dis-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 147
tricts of Scotland, than the reigning monarch. The Earl had, on
some pretence, seized and imprisoned a baron, called Maclellan,
tutor of Bombie, whom he threatened to bring to tritd, by his
power of hereditary jurisdiction. The uncle of this gentleman, Sir
Patrick Gray of Foulis, who commanded the body-guard of James
II., obtained from that prince a warrant, requiring from Earl Dou-
glas the body of the prisoner. When Gray appeared, the earl iu-
stantly suspected his errand. *' You have not dined," said he, with-
out suffering him to open his commission : " it is ill talking between
a full man and a fasting." While Gray was at meat, the unfortu-
nate prisoner was, by Douglas's command, led forth to the court-
yard and beheaded. When the repast was finished, the King's let-
ter was presented and opened. " Sir Patrick," says Douglas,
leading Gray to the court, " right glad had I been to honour the
King's messenger; but you have come too late. Yonder lies your
•sister's son, without the head : you are welcome to his dead body."
Gray, having mounted his horse, turned to the Earl, and expressed
his wrath in a deadly oath, that he would requite the injury with
Douglas's heart's blood — ." To horse ! " cried the haughty baron ;
and the messenger of his prince was pursued till witliin a few miles
of Edinburgh.' Gray, however, had an opportunity of keeping his
vow ; for, being upon guard in the King's antechamber at StirUng,
when James, incensed at the insolence of the Earl, struck him with
liis dagger, Sir Patrick rushed in, and dispatched him with a pole-
axe. The castle of Thrieve was the last of the fortresses which held
out for the house of Douglas, after their grand rebellion in 1553.
James II. writes an account of the exile of this potent family, to
Charles VII. of France, 8th July, 1555; and adds, that all their
castles had been yielded to him, ' ' Excepto duniaxat castro de Trefe,
•per Jiostros fideles imprcBsentiarum ohsesso ; quod, domino coHce-
dente, in hrevi obtinere speramus." — Pinkerton's History, Ap-
pendix, vol. i. p. 486. — See Pitscottie's History, Godscroft,
&c.
1 [This incident, no doubt, suggested the scene between Arcliibald
Bell-the-Cat and Lord Marmion. See Marmion. Canto V. xiv.— Ed.]
148 MINSTRELSY OF
THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY
The reader will find, prefixed to the foregoing ballad,
an account of the noted feud betwixt the families of
Maxwell and Johnstone. The following song celebrates
the skirmish, in 1593, betwixt the Johnstones and
Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient quar-
rel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell, and finally to the
battle of Dryfi"e Sands, in which the latter lost his life.
Wamphray is the name of a parish in Annandale.
Lethenhall was the abode of Johnstone of Wamphray,
and continued to be so till of late years. William
Johnstone of Wamphray, called the Galliard, was a
noted freebooter. A place, near the head of Teviotdale,
retains the name of the Galliard's Faulds, (folds,)
Ijeing a valley, where he used to secrete and divide his
spoil, with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates. His
nom de guerre seems to have been derived from the
dance called Tlie Galliard. The word is still used in
Scotland, to express an active, gay, dissipated character.^
Willie of the Kirkhill, nephew to the Galliard, and his
^ Cleveland applies the plirase in a very different manner, in
treating of the assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1644 : —
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 149
aveng-er, was also a noted Border robber. Previous to
the battle of Dryffe Sands, so often mentioned, tradition
reports, that Maxwell had offered a ten-poiind-laiid to
any of his party, who should bring him the head or
hand of the Laird of Johnstone. This being- reported
to his antagonist, he answered, he had not a ten-pound-
land to offer, but would give a five-merk-land to tho
man who should that day cut off the head or hand of
Lord Maxwell. Willie of the Kirkhill, mounted upon
a young grey horse, rushed upon the enemy, and earned
the reward, by striking down their unfortunate chief-
tain, and cutting off his right hand.
From a pedigree in the appeal case of Sir James
Johnstone of Westeraw, claiming the honours and titles
of Annandale, it appears that the Johnstones of Wam-
phray were descended from James, sixth son of the sixth
baron of Johnstone. The male line became extinct in
1657.
" And Selden is a Galliard by himself.
And wel mig-ht be ; there's more divines in him,
Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim."
Skelton, in his railing poem against James IV., terms him Sir Skyr
Galyard,
150 MINSTRELSY OF
THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY.
'TwiXT Girth -head ^ and the Langwood end.
Lived the Galhard, and the GalHard's men ;
But and the lads of Leverhay,
That drove the Crichton's g-ear away.
It is the lads of Lethenha',
The greatest rogues amang them a' :
But and the lads of Stefenbiggin,
They broke the house in at the rigging.
The lads of Fingland, and Helbeck-hill,
They were never for good, but aye for ill ;
'Twixt the Stay wood-bush and Langside-hill,
They steal'd the broked cow and the branded bull.
It is the lads of the Girth-head,
The deil's in them for pride and greed ;
For the Galliard, and the gay GalHard's men,
They ne'er saw a horse but they made it their ain.
' Leverhay, Stefenbiggin, Girth- head, &c., are all situated ia
the parish of Wamphray.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 151
The Galliard to Nithsdale is gane,
To steal Sim Crichton's winsome dun,
The Galliard is unto the stable gane,
But instead of the dun, the blind he has ta'en.
" Now Simmy, Simmy of the Side,
Come out and see a Johnstone ride !
Here's the bonniest horse in a' Nithside,
And a gentle Johnstone aboon his hide." —
Simmy Crichton's mounted then.
And Crichtons has raised mony a ane ;
The GalHard trow'd his horse had been wight.
But the Crichtons beat him out o' sight.
As soon as the Galliard the Crichton saw,
Behind the saug-h-bnsh he did draw ;
And there the Crichtons the Galliard hae ta'en,
And nane wi' him but Willie alane,
" O Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang-,
And I'll never mair do a Crichton wrang- !
O Simmy, Simmy, now let me be.
And a peck o' gowd I'll give to thee !
" O Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang.
And my wife shall heap it with her hand." —
But the Crichtons wadna let the Galliard be,
But they hang'd him hie upon a tree.
152 MINSTRELSY OF
O think then Wilhe he was right wae,
When he saw his uncle guided sae ;
" But if ever I live Wamphray to see,
My uncle's death avenged shaU be ! " —
Back to Wamphray he is gane,
And riders has raised mony a ane ;
Saying — " My lads, if ye'U be true,
Ye shall a' be clad in the noble blue." —
Back to Nitlisdale they have gane,
And awa' the Crichtons' nowt^ hae ta'en ;
But when they cam to the Wellpath-head,"
The Crichtons bade them 'light and lead.
And when they cam to the Biddes-burn, ^
The Crichtons bade them stand and turn ;
And when they cam to the Biddes-strand,
The Crichtons they were hard at hand.
But when they cam to the Biddes-law,^
The Johnstones bade them stand and draw ;
" We've done nae ill, we'll thole ^ nae wrang,
But back to Wamphray we will gang." —
' Nowt — Cattle ^ The "Wellpath is a pass by wliicli tlie Joliu-
stones were retreating to their fastnesses in Annandale.
^ The Biddes-burn, where the skirmish took place betwixt the
Johnstones and their pursuers, is a rivulet which takes its course
among the mountains on the confines of Nithesdale and Annandale.
^ Law — A conical hill ■' Thole — Endure.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 153
And out spoke Willie of the Kirkhill,
"Of lighting-, lads, ye'se hae your fill." —
And from his horse Willie he lap.
And a burnish'd brand in his hand he gat.
Out throug-h the Crichtons Willie he ran,
And dang- them down baith horse and man ;
0 but the Johnstones were wondrous rude,
When the Biddes-burn ran three days blood !
" Now, sirs, we have done a noble deed ;
We have reveng-ed the Galliard's bleid.
For every finger of the Galliard's hand,
1 vow this day I've kili'd a man." —
As they cam in at Evan-head,
At Ricklaw-holm they spread abread ; ^
" Drive on, my lads ! it will be late ;
We'll hae a pint at Wamphray gate."
" For where'er I gang, or e'er I ride.
The lads of Wamphray are on my side ;
And of a' the lads that I do ken,
A Wamphray lad's the king of men."
^ Ricklaw-liolin is a place upon the Evan water, wliicli falls Into
tlie Annan, below Moffat.
^ Wamphray -gate was in those days an alehouse.
154 MINSTRELSY OF
LESLY'S MARCH.
" But, O my country ! how shall memory trace
Thy glories, lost in either Charles's days.
When through thy fields destructive rapine spread.
Nor sparing infants' tears, nor hoary head !
In those dread days, the unprotected swain
Mouru'd, in the mountains, o'er his wasted plain ;
Nor longer vocal, with the shepherd's lay.
Were Yarrow's banks, or groves of Endermay."
Langhorne — Genius and Valour.
Such are the verses, in which a modern bard has
painted the desolate state of Scotland, during- a period
highly unfavourable to poetical composition. Yet the
civil and religious wars of the seventeenth century have
afforded some subjects for traditionary poetry, and the
reader is now to be presented with the ballads of that
disastrous era. Some prefatory history may not be un-
acceptable.
That the Reformation was a good and a glorious
work, few will be such slavish bigots as to deny. But
the enemy came, by night, and sowed tares among the
wheat ; or rather, the foul and rank soil, upon which
the seed was thrown, pushed forth, together with the.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 155
rising' crop, a plentiful proportion of pestilential weeds.
The morals of the reformed clergy were severe ; their
learning was usually respectable, sometimes profound ;
and their eloquence, though often coarse, was vehement,
animated, and popular. But they never could forget,
that their rise had been achieved by the degradation, if
not the fall, of the Crown ; and hence, a body of men,
who, in most countries, have been attached to monar-
chy, were in Scotland, for nearly two centuries, some-
times the avowed enemies, always the ambitious rivals,
of their prince. The disciples of Calvin could scarcely
avoid a tendency to democracy, and the republican form
of church government was sometimes hinted at, as no
unfit model for the state ; at least, the kirkmen labour-
ed to impress upon their followers and hearers the fun-
damental principle, that the church should be solely
governed by those, unto whom God had given the spi-
ritual sceptre. The elder Melvine, in a conference with
James VI., seized the monarch by the sleeve, and ad-
dressing him as God's sillie vassal, told him, " There
are two kings, and two kingdomes. There is Christ,
and his kingdome, the kirke ; whose subject King James
the Sixth is, and of whose kingdome he is not a king-,
nor a head, nor a lord, but a member ; and they whom-
Christ hath called and connnanded to watch ower his
kirke, and govern his spiritual kingdome, have sufficient
authoritie and power from him so to do ; which no
Christian king, nor prince, should control or discharge,
but fortiiie and assist ; otherwise they are not faithful
156 MINSTRELSY OF
subjects to Christ." — Calderwood, p. 329. The dele-
gated theocracy, thus sternly claimed, was exercised
with equal rigour. The offences in the King's house-
hold fell under their unceremonious jurisdiction, and he
was formally reminded of his occasional neglect to say
grace before and after meat — his repairing to hear the
word more rarely than was fitting — his profane banning
and swearing, and keeping of evil company — and, finally,
of his queen's carding, dancing, night -walking, and such-
like profane j^astimes. — Calderwood, p. 313. A
curse, direct or implied, was formally denounced against
every man, horse, and spear, that should assist the King
in his quarrel with the Earl of Gowrie ; and from the
pulpit, the favourites of the listening sovereign were
likened to Haman, his wife to Herodias, and he himself
to Ahab, to Herod, and to Jeroboam.
These effusions of zeal could not be very agreeable
to the temper of James ; and accordingly, by a course
of slow, and often crooked and cunning policy, he la-
boured to arrange the church government upon a less
turbulent and menacing footing. His eyes were natu-
rally turned towards the English hierarchy, which had
been modelled, by the despotic Henry VHL, into such
a form, as to connect indissolubly the interest of the
church with that of the regal power. ^ The Reforma-
tion, in England, had originated in the arbitrary will of
^ Of tliis tlie Covenanters were so sensible, as to trace (what
tliey called) the Anticliristian hierarchy, with its idolatry, supersti-
tion, and human inventions, " to the prelacy of England, the foun-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 157
the prince ; in Scotland, and in all other countries of
Europe; it had commenced among- insurgents of the
lower ranks. Hence, the deep and essential difference
which separated the Huguenots, the Lutherans, the
Scottish Presbyterians, and, in fine, all the other re-
formed churches, from that of England. But James,
with a timidity which sometimes supplies the place of
prudence, contented himself with gradually imposing
iipon the Scottish nation a limited and moderate sys-
tem of Episcopacy, which, while it gave to a propor-
tion of the churchmen a seat in the council of the na-
tion, induced them to look up to the sovereign, as the
power to whose influence they owed their elevation.
In other respects, James spared the prejudices of his
subjects ; no ceremonial ritual was imposed upon their
consciences ; the leading pastors w^ere reconciled by
the prospect of preferment ; ^ the dress and train of the
bishops were plain and decent ; the system of tithes was
placed upon a moderate and unoppressive footing ; ~
and, perhaps, on the whole, the Scottish hierarchy con-
tain wlience all these Babylonisli streams issue unto us." — See their
manifesto on entering England, in 1640.
•* Many of the preachers, -who had been loudest in the cause of
presbytery, were induced to accept of bishoprics. Such was, for
example, William Cooper, who was created Bishop of Galloway.
This recreant Mass John was a hypochondriac, and conceived his
lower extremities to be composed of glass ; hence, on his court
advancement, the following epigram was composed :
" Aureus, lieu! fragilem coiif regit malleus urnam."
^ This part of the system was perrected in the reign of Charles L
158 MINSTRELSY OF
tallied as few objectionable points as any system of
church government in Europe. Had it subsisted to
the present day, although its doctrines could not have
been more pure, nor its morals more exemplary, than
those of the present Kirk of Scotland, yet its degrees
of promotion might have afforded greater encourage-
ment to learning, and objects of laudable ambition to
those who mioht dedicate themselves to its service.
o
But the precipitate bigotry of the unfortunate Charles
I. was a blow to Episcopacy in Scotland, from which it
never perfectly recovered.
It has frequently happened, that the virtues of the
individual, at least their excesses, (if, indeed, there can
be an excess in virtue,) have l)een fatal to the prince.
Never was this more fully exemplified than in the his-
tory of Charles I. His zeal for religion, his family
aifection, the spirit with which he defended his sup-
posed rights, while they do honour to the man, were
the fatal shelves upon which the monarchy was wreck-
ed. Impatient to accomplish the total revolution,
which his father's cautious timidity had left incomplete,
Charles endeavoured at once to introduce into Scotland
the church government, and to renew, in England, the
temporal domination, of his predecessor, Henry VIII.
The furious temper of the Scottish nation first took
fire ; and the brandished footstool of a prostitute^ gave
the signal for civil dissension, which ceased not till the
^ ' ' Ouif false hon ! wilt thou say the mass at viy lug [ear] ? " was
the well-known exclamation of Margaret Geddes, as she discharged
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 159
chiircli was buried under the ruins of the constitution ;
till the nation had stooped to a military despotism ; and
the monarch to the block of the executioner.
The consequence of Charles's hasty and arbitrary
measures was soon evident. The united nobility, gen-
try, and clergy of Scotland, entered into the Solemn
League and Covenant, by which memorable deed,
they subscrilied and swore a national renunciation of
the hierarchy. The walls of the prelatic Jericho (to
use the language of the times) were thus levelled with
the ground, and the curse of Hiel, the Bethelite, de-
nounced against those who should rebuild them. While
the clergy thundered, from the pulpits, against the pre-
latists and malignants, (by which names were distin-
guished the scattered and heartless adherents of Charles,)
the nobility and gentry, in arms, hurried to oppose the
march of the English army, which now advanced to-
wards their Borders. At the head of their defensive
forces they placed Alexander Lesly, who, with many
of his best officers, had been trained to war under the
great Gustavus Adolphus. They soon assembled an
army of 26,000 men, whose camp, upon Dunse-
Law, is thus described by an eyewitness. Mr
Baillie acknowledges, that " it was an agreeable feast to
her missile tripod against tlie Bisliop of Edinburgh, who, in obedi-
ence to the orders of the privy-council, was endeavouring to re-
hearse the common prayer. Upon a seat more elevated, the said
Margaret had shortly before done penance before the congregation,
for the sin of fornication ; such, at least, is the Tory edition.
160 MINSTRELSY OF
liis eyes to survey the place ; it is a round hill, about a
Scots mile in circle, rising-, with very little declivity,
to the height of a bow-shot, and the head somewhat
plain, and near a quarter of a mile in length and breadth ;
on the top it was g-arnished with near forty field-pieces,,
pointed towards the east and south. The colonels,,
who were mostly noblemen, as Rothes, Cassilis, Egling-
ton, Dalhousie, Lindsay, Lowdon, Boyd, Sinclair, Bal-
carras, Flemyng, Kirkcudbright, Erskine, Montgo-
mery, Yester, &c., lay in large tents at tHe head of
their respective regiments ; their captains, who g-ene-
rally were barons, or chief gentlemen, lay around them:
next to these were the lieutenants, who were general-
ly old veterans, and had served in that, or a higher
station, over sea; and the common soldiers lay out-
most, all in huts of timber, covered with divot, or
straw. Every company, which, accordmg- to the first
plan, did consist of two hundred men, had their colours
iiying at the captain's tent door, with the Scots arms
upon them, and this motto, in golden letters, ' For
Christ's Crown and Covenant.'"
Against this army, so well arrayed and disciplined^
and whose natural hardihood was edged and exalted by
a high opinion of their sacred cause, Charles marched at
the head of a large force, but divided by the emulation
of the commanders, and enervated by disuse of arms. A
faintness of spirit pervaded the royal army, and the
King stooped to a treaty with his Scottish subjects.
This treaty was soon broken ; and, in the following year^
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 161
Diinse-law ag-ain presented the same edifying- spec-
tacle of a Presbyterian army. But the Scots were not
contented with remaining- there. They passed the
Tweed ; and the English troops, in a skirmish at New-
castle, showed either more disaffection, or cowardice,
than had at any former period disgraced their national
character. This war was concluded by the treaty of
E-ippon ; in consequence of which, and of Charles's con-
cessions, made during his subsequent visit to his native
country, the Scottish parliament congratulated him on
departing " a contented king from a contented people."
If such content ever existed, it was of short duration.
The storm, which had been soothed to temporary
rest in Scotland, burst forth in England with treble
violence. The popular clamour accused Charles, or his
ministers, of fetching into Britain the religion of Rome,
and the policy of Constantinople. The Scots felt most
keenly the first, and the English the second, of these
aggressions. Accordingly, when the civil war of Eng-
land broke forth, the Scots nation, for a time, regarded
it in neutrality, though not with indifference. But,
when the success of a Prelatic monarch, against a Pres-
byterian parliament, was paving- the way for rebuilding-
the system of hierarchy, they could no longer remain
inactive. Bribed by the delusive promise of Sir Henry
Vane, and Marshall, the parliamentary commissioners,
that the Church of England should be " reformedy
according to the ivord of God,'' which, they fondly
believed, amounted to an adoption of presbytery, they
VOL. II. L
162 MINSTRELSY OF
agreed to send succours to their brethren of England,
Alexander Lesly, who ought to have ranked among
the co7itented subjects, having been raised by the Kjng'
to the honours of Earl of Leven, was, nevertheless,
readily induced to accept the command of this second
army. Doubtless, where insurrection is not only par-
doned, but rewarded, a monarch has little right to ex-
pect gratitude for benefits, which all the world, as well
as the receiver, must attribute to fear. Yet sometliing
is due to decency ; and the best apology for Lesly, is
his zeal for propagating Presbyterianisra in England,
the bait which had caught the whole parliament of
Scotland. But, although the Earl of Leven was com-
mander-in-chief, David Lesly, a yet more renowned
and active soldier than himself, was major-general of
the cavalry, and, in truth, bore away the laurels of the
expedition.
The words of the following march, which was played
in the van of this Presbyterian crusade, were first pub-
lished by Allan Ramsay in his Evergreen ; and they
breathe the very spirit we might expect. Mr Ritson,
in his collection of Scottish songs, has favoured the
public with the music — which seems to have been
adapted to the bagpipes.
The hatred of the old Presbyterians to the organ
was apparently invincible. It is here vilified with the
name of a " chest-full of whistles" as the Episcopal Cha-
pel at Glasgow was, by the vulgar, opprobriously termed
the Whistling Kirk. Yet, such is the revolution of
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 163
sentiment upon this, as upon more important points,
that reports have lately been current, of a plan to intro-
duce this noble instrument into presbyterian congrega-
tions.^
The share which Lesly's army bore in the action of
Marston Moor, has been exalted, or depressed, as wri-
ters were attached to the English or Scottish nations,
to the Presbyterian or Independent factions. Mr Laing
concludes with laudable impartiaHty, that the victory
was equally due to " Cromwell's iron brigade of dis-
ciplined Independents, and to three regiments of Lesly's
horse." — Vol. i. p. 244.
* [An atteoipt to introduce the organ into one of the cturches of
Glasgow was made since the above was written — and, as might have
been expected, from the choice of the West of Scotland for such an
experiment, wholly failed. The Presbytery forthwith silenced the
instrument. — Ed.]
164 MINSTRELSY OF
LESLY'S MARCH.
March ! march !
Why the devil do ye na march ?
Stand to your arms, my lads,
Fig-ht in good order ;
Front about, ye musketeers all,
Till ye come to the English Border ;
Stand till't, and fight like men,
True gospel to maintain.
The parliament's blythe to see us a' coming.
When to the kirk we come,
We'll purge it ilka room,
Frae popish relics, and a' sic innovation.
That a' the world may see,
There's nane in the right but we,
Of the auld Scottish nation.
Jenny shall wear the hood,
Jocky the sark^ of God ;
And the kist-fou of whistles.
That mak sic a cleiro,
^ Sark — sliirt. The surplice.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 165
Our pipers braw
Shall hae them a',
Whatever come on it :
Busk up your plaids, my lads !
Cock up your bonnets !
Da Capo.
166 MINSTRELSY OF
THE
BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.
This ballad is so immediately comiected with the
former, that it enables me to contimie my sketch of his-
torical transactions from the march of Lesly.
In the insurrection of 1640, all Scotland, south from
the Grampians, was actively and zealously engaged.
But, after the treaty of Rippon, the first fury of the
revolutionary torrent may be said to have foamed off
its force, and many of the nobility began to look round
with horror, upon the rocks and shelves amongst which
it had hurried them. Numbers regarded the defence
of Scotland as a just and necessary warfare, who did
not see the same reason for interfering in the affairs of
England. The visit of King Charles to the metropolis
of his fathers, in all probability, produced its effect on
his nobles. Some were allied to the house of Stuart by
])lood ; all regarded it as the source of their honours, and
venerated the ancient hereditary royal line of Scotland.
Many, also, had failed in obtaining the private objects
of ambition, or selfish policy, which had induced them
to rise up against the crown. Amongst these late
penitents, the well-known Mar(][uis of Montrose was
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 167
disting-uished — as the first who endeavoured to recede
from the paths of "rude rebelHon." Moved by the enthu-
siasm of patriotism, or perhaps of rehg-ion, but yet more
by ambition, the sin of noble minds, Montrose had en-
gaged, eagerly and deeply, upon the side of the Cove-
nanters. He had been active in pressing the town of
Aberdeen to take the covenant, and his success against
the Gordons, at the bridge of Dee, left that royal burgh
no other means of safety from pillage. At the head of his
own battalion, he waded through the Tweed, in 1 640,
and totally routed the vanguard of the King's cavalry.
But, in 1643, moved with resentment against the
Covenanters, who preferred, to his prompt and ardent
character, the caution of the wily and politic Earl of
Argyle — or seeing, perhaps, that the final views of that
party were inconsistent with the interests of monarchy
and of the constitution — Montrose espoused the falling-
cause of royalty, and raised the Highland clans, whom
he united to a small body of Irish, commanded by Alex-
ander Macdonald, still renowned in the north, under
the title of Colkitto. With these tumultuary and un-
certain forces, he rushed forth, like a torrent from the
mountains, and commenced a rapid and brilliant career
of victory. At Tippermoor, where he first met the
Covenanters, their defeat was so effectual, as to appal
the presbyterian courage, even after the lapse of eighty
years.^ A second army was defeated under the walls of
^ Upon tlie brealdng out of tlie insurrection, in the year 1715,
tte Earl of Rothes, slieriiF and lord-lieutenant of the county of
168 MINSTRELSY OF
Aberdeen; and the pillage of the ill-fated town was
doomed to expiate the principles which Montrose him-
self had formerly imposed upon them. Arg-yleshire
next experienced his arms ; the domains of his rival
were treated with more than military severity ; and Ar-
g-yle himself, advancing- to Inverlochy for the defence
of his country, was totally and disgracefully routed by
Montrose.^ Pressed betwixt two armies, well appointed,
and commanded by the most experienced generals of the
Covenant, Montrose displayed more military skill in
the astonishingly rapid marches, by which he avoided
Fife, issued out an order for " all tlie fencible meu of tlie countie
to meet him at a place called Cashmoor. The gentlemen took no
notice of his orders, nor did the commons, except those whom the
ministers forced to go to the place of rendezvouse, to the number
of liftecn hundred men, being all that their utmost dilligence could
perform. But those of that countie having been taught by their
experience that it is not good meddling with edge tools, especiallie
in the hands of HlgUandmen, were very averse from taking amies.
No sooner they reflected on the name of the place of rendezvouse,
Cashmoor, than Tippermoor was called to mind ; a place not far
from thence, where Montrose had routed them, when under the
command of my great-grand-uncle, the Earl of Wemyss, then ge-
neral of God's armie. In a word, the unlucky choice of a place,
called Moor, appeared ominous ; and that, with the flying report
of the HigUandmen having made themselves masters of Perth, made
them throw down their armes, and run, notwithstanding the trovible
that Rothes and the ministers gave themselves to stop them." — IMS.
Memoirs of John Master of Sinclair, vol. i. p. 130 [This
gentleman commanded a party of Fifeshire cavaliers at Sherifl'mcor,
and died in 1750, leaving these Memoirs, which are written with
very considerable talent En.]
* [See the Legend of Montrose. Waverley Novels, vol. xv. — Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 169
%hting- to disadvantage, than even in the field of vic-
tory. By one of those hurried marches, from the hanks
of Loch Katrine to the heart of Inverness-shire, he
was enabled to attack, and totally to defeat, the Cove-
nanters at Anlderne, thoug-h he bronght into the field
hardly one-half of their force. Baillie, a veteran officer,
was next routed by him, at the villag-e of Alford, in
Strathbogie. Encourag-ed by these repeated and splen-
did successes, Montrose now descended into the heart
of Scotland, and foug-ht a bloody and decisive battle
near Kilsyth, where four thousand Covenanters fell
under the Hig-hland claymore.
This victory opened the whole of Scotland to Mon-
trose. He occupied the capital, and marched forward to
the Border ; not merely to complete the subjection of
the southern provinces, but with the flattering hope of
pouring- his victorious army into England, and bringing-
to the support of Charles the sword of his paternal tribes.
Half a century before Montrose's career, the state of
the Borders was such as might have enabled him easily
to have accomplished his daring- plan. The Marquis
of Douglas, the Earls of Home, Roxburgh, Traquair,
and Annandale, were all descended of mighty Border
chiefs, whose ancestors could, each of them, have led
into the field a body of their own vassals, equal in num-
bers, and superior in discipline, to the army of Mon-
trose.^ But the military spirit of the Borderers, and
^ [In this passage, Sir Walter Scott must have had in remem-
brance John Home's sorrowful account of the Earl of Home's ap-
170 MINSTRELSY OF
their attachment to their chiefs, had been much broken
since the union of the Crowns. The disarming acts of
James had been carried rigorously into execution, and
the smaller proprietors, no longer feeling the necessity
of protection from their chiefs in war, had aspired to
independence, and embraced the tenets of the Covenant.
Without imputing, with Wishart, absolute treachery to
the Border nobles, it may be allowed, that they looked
with envy upon Montrose, and with dread and aversion
upon his rapacious and disorderly forces. Hence, had it
been in their power, it might not have altogether suited
their inclinations, to have brought the strength of the
Border lances to the support of the northern clans. The
once formidable name of Douglas still sufficed to raise
some bands, by whom Montrose was joined in his march
down the Gala. With these reinforcements, and with
the remnant of his Highlanders, (for a great number
had returned home with Colkitto, to deposit their plun-
der, and provide for their families,) Montrose, after
traversing the Border, finally encamped upon the field
of Philiphaugh.
The river Ettrick, immediately after its junction with
the Yarrow, and previous to its falling into the Tweedy,
makes a large sweep to the southward, and winds al-
most beneath the lofty bank, on which the town of Sel-
kirk stands : leaving, upon the northern side, a large
and level plain, extending in an easterly direction, from
pearance, -witli only a couple of menial servants, at tlie head-quarters
of the royal army, in the campaign of 1745. — Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 171
a hill, covered with natural copsewood, called the Hare-
head-wood, to the high ground which forms the banks
of the Tweed, near Sunderland hall. This plain is
called Philiphaugh:^ it is about a mile and a half in
length, and a quarter of a mile broad ; and being de-
fended, to the northward, by the hills which separate
Tweed from Yarrow, by the river Ettrick in front,
and by the high grounds, already mentioned, on each
flank, it forms, at once, a convenient and a secure field
of encampment. On each flank Montrose threw up
some trenches, which are still visible ; and here he post-
ed his infantry, amounting to about twelve or fifteen
hundred men. He himself took up his quarters in the
burgh of Selkirk, and, with him, the cavalry, in number
hardly one thousand, but respectable, as being chiefly
composed of gentlemen and their immediate retainers.
In this manner, by a fatal and unaccountable error, the
river Ettrick was thrown betwixt the cavalry and
infantry, which were to depend upon each other for
intelligence and mutual support. This might be over-
looked by Montrose, in the conviction, that there was
no armed enemy of Charles in the realm of Scotland ;
for he is said to have employed the night in writing and
dispatching this agreeable intelligence to the King.
Such an enemy, however, was already within four miles
of his camp.
^ Tlie Scottish language is ricli in words expressive of local si-
tuation. The single word liavgh conveys to a Scotsman almost all
that I have endeavoured to explain in the text, by circumlocutory
description.
172 MINSTRELSY OF
Recalled by the dang-er of the cause of the Covenant,
General David Lesly came down from England, at the
head of those iron squadrons, whose force had been
proved in the fatal battle of Long Marston Moor. His
army consisted of from five to six thousand men, chiefly
cavalry. Lesly's first plan seems to have been, to oc-
cupy the midland counties, so as to intercept the return
of Montrose's Highlanders, and to force him to an
unequal combat. Accordingly, he marched along- the
eastern coast, from Berwick to Tranent ; but there he
suddenly altered his direction, and, crossing through
Mid- Lothian, turned again to the southward, and fol-
lowing the course of Gala Water, arrived at Melrose,
the evening before the engagement. How it is possible
that Montrose should have received no notice whatever
of the march of so considerable an army, seems almost
inconceivable, and proves, that the country was strongly
disafi"ected to his cause or person. Still more extraordi-
nary does it appear, that, even with the advantage of a
thick mist, Lesly should have, the next morning, advan-
ced from Melrose, forded the Ettrick, and come close
upon Montrose's encampment, without being descried
by a single scout. Such, however, was the case, and it
was attended with all the consequences of the most
complete surprisal.
The first intimation that Montrose received of the
march of Lesly, was the noise of the conflict, or, ra-
ther, that which attended the unresisted slaughter of
his infantry, who never formed a line of l)attle ; the
right wing alone, supported hy the thickets ©f Hare-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 173
head-wood, and by the intrenchments, which are there
still visible, stood firm for some time. But Lesly had
detached two thousand men, \\ho, crossing- the Ettrick
still hig-her up than his main body, assaulted the rear of
Montrose's right wing. At this moment, the Marquis
himself arrived, and beheld his army dispersed, for the
first time, in irretrievable rout. He had thrown himself
upon a horse the instant he heard the firing, and, fol-
lowed by such of his disorderly cavalry as had gathered
upon the alarm, he galloped from Selkirk, crossed the
Ettrick, and made a bold and desperate attempt to re-
trieve the fortune of the day. But all was in vain ;
and, after cutting his way, almost singly, through a
body of Lesly's troopers, the gallant Montrose graced
by his example the retreat of the fugitives. That re-
treat he continued up Yarrow, and over Minchmoor ;
nor did he stop till he arrived at Traquair, sixteen miles
from the field of battle. Upon Philiphaugh he lost, in
one defeat, the fruit of six splendid victories ; nor was
he again able effectually to make head, in Scotland,
against the covenanted cause. The number slain in the
field did not exceed three or four hundred ; for the fu-
gitives found refuge in the mountains, which had often
been the retreat of vanquished armies, and were imper-
vious to the pursuer's cavalry. Lesly abused his vic-
tory, and dishonoured his arms, by slaughtering, in cold
blood, many of the prisoners whom he had taken ; and
the courtyard of Newark Castle is said to have been
the spot, upon which they were shot by his command.
174 MINSTRELSY OF
Many others are said, by Wishart, to have been preci-
pitated from a high bridge over the Tweed. This, as
Mr Laing' remarks, is impossible ; because there was
not then a bridge oyer the Tweed betwixt Peebles and
Berwick. But there is an old bridge over the Ettrick,
only four miles from Philiphaugh — and another over
the Yarrow, both of which lay in the very line of flight
and pursuit ; and either might have been the scene of
the massacre. But if this is doubtful, it is too certain,
that several of the royalists were executed by the Cove-
nanters, as traitors to the King- and Parliament.^
I have reviewed, at some length, the details of this
memorable engagement, which, at the same time, ter-
minated the career of a hero, likened, by no mean judge
of mankind, ^ to those of antiquity, and decided the fate
of his country. It is farther remarkable, as the last
field which was fought in Ettrick forest, the scene of so
many bloody actions.^ The unaccountable neglect of
* A covenanted minister, present at the execution of these gentle-
men, observed, ' ' This wark gaes bonnilie on ! " an amiable excla-
mation, equivalent to the modern ga ira, so often used on similar
occasions Wishart's Memoirs of Montrose.
^ Cardinal du Retz.
^ [I have often heard Sir "Walter Scott teU the story of one of
Lesly's officers who had his quarters the night before the battle at
the farm-house of Toftfield, included in the estate of Abbotsford.
This gentleman having been courteously treated by his hosts, before
he mounted his horse in the morning drew the goodwife aside, and
intrusted his purse to her keeping. " You have been kind to me,"
lie said, " and being a brotherless and childless man, in case I fall
this day, I would as soon you should be my heir as any other per-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 175
patrols, and the imprudent separation betwixt the horse
and foot, seem to have been the immediate cause of
Montrose's defeat. But the ardent and impetuous cha-
racter of this g-reat warrior, corresponding with that of
the troops which he commanded, was better calculated
for attack than defence ; for surprising- others, rather
than for providing- against surprise himself. Thus, he
suffered loss by a sudden attack upon part of his forces,
stationed at Aberdeen ; ^ and, had he not extricated liim-
self with the most singular ability, he must have lost
his whole army, when surprised by Baillie, during the
son. " He returned in tlie evening, but only to die In Ms old quar-
ters, and the farmer's family were said to liave risen some steps In the
world, in consequence of his bequest. — Ed.]
^ Colonel Hurry, with a party of horse, surprised the town, while
Montrose's Highlanders and cavaliers were " dispersed through the
town, drinking carelessly in their lodgings ; and, hearing the horses'
i"eet, and great noise, were astonished, never dreaming of their enemy .
However, Donald Farquharson happened to come to the causey,
where he was cruelly slain, anent the Court de Guard ; a brave
gentleman, and one of the noblest captains amongst all the High-
landers of Scotland. Two or three others were killed, and some
(taken prisoners) had to Edinburgh, and cast into irons In the tol-
booth. Great lamentation was made for this gallant, being still the
King's man for life and death." — Spalding, vol. il. p. 281. The
journalist, to whom all matters were of equal importance, proceeds
to inform us, that Hurry took the Marquis of Huntly's best horse,
and, in his retreat through IVIontrose, seized upon the Marquis's
second son. He also expresses his regret, that " the said Donald
Farquharson's body was found in the street, stripped naked ; for
they tirr'd from off his body a rich stand of apparel, but put on the
same day." — Ibid.
176 MINSTRELSY OF
plunder of Dundee. Nor has it escaped an ingenious
modern historian, that his final defeat at Dunheath so
nearly resembles in its circumstances the surprise at
Philiphaug-h, as to throw some shade on his military
talents. — Laing's History.
The following ballad, which is preserved by tradition
in Selkirkshire, coincides accurately with historical fact.
This, indeed, constitutes its sole merit. ^The Cove-
nanters were not, I dare say, addicted more than their
successors, to " the profane and unprofitable art of poem-
making." ^ Still, however, they could not refrain from
some strains of exultation over the defeat of the trucu-
lent tyrant^ James Graham. For, gentle reader, Mon-
trose, who, with resources which seemed as none, gain-
ed six victories, and reconquered a kingdom ; who, a
poet, a scholar, a cavalier, and a general, could have
graced alike a court, and governed a camp, this Mon-
trose was numbered, by his covenanted countrymen,
among " the troul)les of Israel, the firebrands of hell,
the Corahs, the Balaams, the Doegs, the Rabshakehs,
the Hamans, the Tobias, and Sanballats of the time."^
' So little was the spirit of illiberal fanaticism decayed in some
parts of Scotland, that only tliirty years ago, when Wilson, the in-
genious author of a poem called " Clyde" now republished, was
inducted into the office of schoolmaster at Greenock, he was obliged
formally, and in writing, to abjure the '"'' profane and unprofitahle
art of poem-making ." It is proper to add, that such an incident is
710W as unlikely to happen in Greenock as in London. 1803.
* [ See Notes to the Legend of JMontrose. Waverley Novels,
vol. XV. — Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 177
BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.
On Philiphaiig-h a fray beg-an,
At Hairhead-wood it ended ;
The Scots out o'er the Graemes they ran,
Sae merrily they bended.
Sir David frae the Border came,
Wi' heart an' hand came he ;
Wi' him three thousand bonny Scots,
To bear him company.
Wi' him three thousand Tahant men,
A noble sight to see !
A cloud o' mist them vveel conceal'd,
As close as e'er might be.
When they came to the Shaw burn,^
Said he, " Sae weel we frame,
^ A small stream, that joins tlie Ettrick, near Selkirl:, en the
south side of the river.
VOL, II, M
MINSTRELSY OF
I think it is convenient
That we shoiikl sing a psahn." — ^
^Vlien they came to the Lingly burn,^
As dayhght did appear,
They spy'd an aged father,
And he did draw them near.
" Come hither, aged father!"
Sir David he did cry,
" And tell me where Montrose lies,
With all his great army." —
" But, first, you must come tell to me,
If friends or foes you be ;
I fear you are Montrose's men.
Come frae the north country." —
" No, we are nane o' Montrose's men,
Nor e'er intend to be ;
I am Sir David Lesly,
That's speaking- unto thee." —
" If you're Sir David Lesly,
As I think weel ye be,
' Various reading : " That we should take a dram."
2 A brook, which falls into the Ettrick, from the north, a little
above the Shaw burn.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 179
I am sorry ye hae brong-ht so few
Into your company.
" There's fifteen thousand armed men,
Encamped on yon lee ;
Ye'U never be a bite to them,
For aught that I can see.
" But halve your men in equal parts,
Your purpose to fulfill ;
Let ae half keep the water side.
The rest g-ae round the hill.
" Your nether party fire must,
Then beat a Hying- drum ;
And then they'll think the day's their ain.
And frae the trench they'll come ;
" Then, those that are behind them, maun
Gie shot, baith grit and sma' ;
And so, between your armies twa.
Ye may make them to fa'. " —
^' O were ye ever a soldier ? " —
Sir David Lesly said ;
" O yes ; I was at Solway Flow,
Where we were all betray'd. ^
* The traditional commentary upon tills ballad states tliis man's
ISO MINSTRELSY OF
" Ag-aiii I was at curst Dunbar,
And was a pris'ner ta'en :
And many weary nig-ht and day,
In prison I hae lien." —
" If ye will lead these men aright,
Rewarded shall ye be ;
But, if that ye a traitor prove,
I'll hang thee on a tree." —
" Sir, I will not a traitor prove ;
Montrose has plunder'd me ;
I'll do my best to banish him
Away frae this country." —
He halved his men in equal parts,
His purpose to fulfill ;
The one part kept the water side,
The other gaed round the hill.
The nether party fired brisk,
Then turn'd and seem'd to rin ;
name to liave been Brydone, ancestor to several families in tlie pa-
risb. of Ettriclv, particularly tliose occupying the farms of Midge-
liope and Redford Green. It is a strange anaclironism, to make
tliis aged father state liimself to have been at the battle of Sohcay
Floic, which was fought a hundred years before Phihphaugh ; and
a still stranger, to mention that of Dunbar, winch did not take place
till five years after Montrose's defeat.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 181
And then they a' came frae the trench,
And cry'd, " The day's our ain I " —
The rest then ran into the trench,
And loosed their cannons a' :
And thus, between his armies twa,
He made them fast to fa'.
Now, let us a' for Lesly pray,
And his brave company I
For they hae yanquish'd great Montrose,
Our cruel enemy. •■■
^ A tradition, annexed to a copy of tliis ballad, transmitted to nie
by Mr James Hogg, bears, tbat tbe Earl of Traquair, on tbe day
of the battle, was advancing with a large sum of money, for the
payment of iMontrose's forces, attended by a blacksmith, one of his
retainers. As they crossed ]Minchmoor, they were alarmed by
firing, which the Earl conceived to be IMontrose exercising his forces,
but which his attendant, from the constancy and irregularity of the
noise, affirmed to be the tumult of an engagement. As they
came below Broadmeadows, upon Yarrow, they met their fugitive
friends, hotly pursued by the parhamentary troopers. The Earl,
of course, turned, and fled also ; but his horse, jaded with the
weight of dollars which he carried, refused to take the hill ; so that
the Earl was fain to exchange with his attendant, leaving him with
the breathless horse, and bag of sUver, to shift for himself ;
which he is supposed to have done very effectually. Some of the
dragoons, attracted by the appearance of the horse and trappings,
gave chase to the smith, who fled up the Yarrow ; but finding him-
self, as he said, encumbered with the treasure, and unwilling that
it should be talven, he flung it into a well, or pond, near the Tin-
182 MINSTRELSY OF
nies, above Hangingshaw. INIany wells were afterwards searched
in vain ; but it is the general belief, that the smith, if he ever hid
the money, knew too well how to anticipate the scrutiny. There
is, however, a pond, which some peasants began to drain, not long
ago, in hopes of finding the golden prize, but were prevented, as
they pretended, by supernatural interference. 1803.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 183
GALLANT GRAHAMS.
The preceding- ballad Avas a song- of triumph over
the defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh ; the verses
which follow, are a lamentation for his final discomfi-
ture and cruel death. The present edition of " The
Gallant Grahams''^ is given from tradition, enlarg-ed
and corrected by an ancient printed edition, entitled,
" The gallant Grahams of Scotland, " to the tune of
" I ivill away, and I tuill not tarry," of which Mr Rit-
son favoured me with an accurate copy.
The conclusion of Montrose's melancholy history is
too well known. The Scottish army, which sold King-
Charles I. to his Parliament, had, we may charitably
hope, no idea that they were bartering- his blood ; al-
though they must have been aware, that they were
consigning- him to perpetual bondage.^ At least the
sentiments of the kingdom at large differed widely from
those of the military merchants, and the danger of King-
' As Salmasius quaintly, but truly, expresses it, Preshijteriani
ligaverunt, Independentes trucidaverunt.
184 MINSTRELSY OF
Charles drew into England a well-appointed Scottish
army, under the command of the Duke of Hamilton.
But he met with Cromwell, and to meet with Crom-
well was inevitable defeat. The death of Charles, and
the triumph of the Independents, excited still more
hig-hly the hatred and the fears of the Scottish nation.
The outwitted Presbyterians, who saw, too late, that
their own hands had been employed in the hateful task
of erecting^ the power of a sect yet more fierce and fa-
natical than themselves, deputed a commission to the
Hague, to treat with Charles II., whom, upon certain,
conditions, they now wished to restore to the throne
of his fathers. At the court of the exiled monarch,
Montrose also offered to his acceptance a splendid plan
of victory and conquest, and pressed for his permission
to enter Scotland; and there, collecting- the remains
of the royalists, to claim the crown for his master,
with the sword in his hand. An able statesman might
perhaps have reconciled these jarring- projects ; a good
man would certainly have made a decided choice be-
twixt them. Charles was neither the one nor the other ;
and, while he treated with the Presbyterians, with a view
of accepting the crown from their hands, he scrupled not
to authorize Montrose, the mortal enemy of the sect,
to pursue his separate and inconsistent plan of conquest.
Montrose arrived in the Orkneys with six hundred
Germans, was furnished with some recruits from those
islands, and was joined by several royalists, as he tra-
versed the wilds of Caithness and Sutherland ; but,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 185
advancing- into Ross-shire, he was surprised, and totally
defeated, by Colonel Strachan, an officer of the Scottish
Parliament, who had distinguished himself in the civil
wars, and who afterwards became a decided Cromwel-
lian. Montrose, after a fruitless resistance, at length
fled from the field of defeat, and concealed himself in
the grounds of Macleod of Assaint, to whose fidelity he
intrusted his life, and by whom he was delivered up to
Lesly, his most bitter enemy.
He was tried for what was termed treason against
the Estates of the Kingdom ; and, despite the commis-
sion of Charles for his proceedings, he was condemned
to die by a Parliament who acknowledged Charles to
be their king, and whom, on that account only, Mon-
trose acknowledged to be a Parliament.
" The clergy," says a late animated historian, " whose
vocation it was to persecute the repose of his last mo-
ments, sought, by the terrors of his sentence, to extort
repentance ; but his behaviour, firm and chg-nified to the
end, repelled their insulting- advances with scorn and
disdain. He was prouder, he replied, to have his head
affixed to the prison-walls, than to have his picture
placed in the King's bedchamber : ' and, far from being
troubled that my limbs are to be sent to your principal
cities, I wish I had flesh enough to be dispersed through
Christendom, to attest my dying- attachment to my King.'
It was the calm employment of his mind, that night,
to reduce this extravagant sentiment to verse. He ap-
peared next day on the scafl'old, in a rich habit, with
186 MINSTRELSY OF
the same serene and undaunted countenance, and ad-
dressed the people, to vindicate his dying- unabsolved
by the church, rather than to justify an invasion of the
king'dom, during- a treaty with the estates. The insults
of his enemies were not yet exhausted. The history
of his exploits was attached to his neck by the public
executioner ; but he smiled at their inventive malice ;
declared that he wore it with more pride than he had
done the g-arter ; and when his devotions were finished,
demanding- if any more indignities remained to be prac-
tised, submitted calmly to an unmerited fate." — Laing's
History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 404.
Such was the death of James Graham, the great
Marquis of Montrose, over whom some lowly bard has
poured forth the following- elegiac verses. To say that
they are far unworthy of the subject, is no great re-
proach ; for a nobler poet might have failed in the at-
tempt. Indifferent as the ballad is, we may regret its
being still more degraded by many apparent corruptions.
There seems an attempt to trace Montrose's career,
from his first raising- the royal standard, to his second
expedition and death ; but it is interrupted and imper-
fect. From the concluding stanza, I presume the song-
was composed upon the arrival of Charles in Scotland,
which so speedily followed the execution of Montrose,
that the King- entered the city while the head of his
most faithful and most successful adherent was still
blackening- in the sun.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 187
THE GALLANT GRAHAMS.
Now, fare thee well, sweet Ennerdale ! "■
Baith kith and countrie I bid adieu ;
For I maim away, and I may not stay,
To some uncouth land ^^'hich I never knew.
To wear the blue I think it best,
Of all the colours that I see ;
And I'll wear it for the g-allant Grahams,
That are banished from their countrie.
I have no gold, I have no land,
I have no pearl nor precious stane ;
But I wald sell my silken snood,
To see the gallant Grahams come hame.
In Wallace days, when they began.
Sir John the Graham" did bear the gree
' A corruption of Eiidrickdale. The principal and most ancient
possessions of the ^lontrose family lie along the water of Endrick,
in Dumbartonshire.
^ The faithful friend and adherent of the immortal Wallace, slain,
at the battle of Falkirk.
188 MINSTRELSY OF
Through all the lands of Scotland wide :
He was a lord of the south countrie.
And so was seen full many a time ;
For the summer flowers did never spring-,
But every Graham, in armour bright,
Would then ajopear before the king.
They were all drest in armour sheen,
Upon the j)leasant banks of Tay ;
Before a king they mig-ht be seen,
These gallant Grahams in their array.
At the Goukliead our camp we set,
Our leaguer down there for to lay ;
And, in the bonny summer light,
We rode our white horse and our gray.
Our false commander sold our kin^
Unto his deadly enemie,
Who was the traitor, Cromwell,^ then ;
So I care not what they do with me.
They have betray'd our noble prince,
And banish'd him from his royal crown ;
But the gallant Grahams have ta'en in hand
For to command those traitors down.
1 See Note A, p. 195.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 189
In Glen-Prosen^ we rendezYous'cl,
March'd to Glensliie by night and day,
And took the town of Aberdeen,
And met the Campbells in their array.
Five thousand men, in armour strong-,
Did meet the gallant Grahams that day
At Inverlochie, where war began,
And scarce two thousand men were they.
Gallant Montrose, that chieftain bold,
Courageous in the best degree.
Did for the king light "v^'ell that day ; —
The Lord preserve his majestie !
Nathaniel Gordon,^ stout and bold,
Did for King Charles wear the blue ;
But the cavaliers they all were sold,
And brave Harthill,^ a cavalier too.
^ Glen-Prosen is in Angus-sMre.
^ Of tlie family of Giclit in Aberdeenshire. See Note B, at the
end of the ballad, p. 196.
^ Leith, of Harthill, was a determined loyalist, and hated the
Covenanters, not without reason. His father, a haughty, high-
spirited baron, and chief of a clan, happened, in 1639, to sit down
in the desk of Provost Lesly, in the high kirk of Aberdeen. He
•was disgracefully thrust out by the officers, and, using some threa-
tening language to the provost, was imprisoned, hke a felon, for
many months, till he became furious, and nearly mad. Having
got free of the shackles with which he was loaded, he used his li-
190 MINSTRELSY OF
And Newton- Gordon,^ burd-alone,
And Dalgatie, ^ both stout and keen,
berty by comino- to the tolbootb window, where be uttered the most
violent and horrible threats against Provost Lesly, and the other
covenanting magistrates, by whom he had been so severely treated.
Under pretence of this new offence, he was sent to Edinburgh, and
lay lone in prison there ; for, so fierce was his temper, that no one
would give surety for his keeping the peace with his enemies, if set
at hberty. At length he was delivered by IMontrose, when he made
himself master of Edinburgh. — Spalding, vol. i. pp. 201, 266.
His house of Harthill was dismantled, and miserably pillaged by
Forbes of Craigievar, who expelled his wife and children with the
most relentless inhumanity Ibid. vol. ii. p. 225. Meanwhile,
young Harthill was the companion and associate of Nathaniel Gor-
don, whom he accompanied at plundering the fair of Elgin, and at
most of Montrose's engagements. He retaliated severely on the
Covenanters, by ravaging and burning their lands Ibid. vol. ii.
p. 301. His fate has escaped my notice.
1 Newton, for obvious reasons, was a common appellation of an
estate, or barony, where a new edifice had been erected. Hence,
for distinction's sake, it was anciently compounded with the name
of the proprietor ; as, Newton-Edmonstone, Newton-Don, New-
ton-Gordon, &c. Of Gordon of New-town, I only observe, that
he was, like all his clan, a steady loyalist, and a follower of Mon-
trose.
2 Sir Francis Hay, of Dalgatie, a steady cavalier, and a gentle-
man of great gallantry and accomplishments. He was a faithful
follower of IMontrose, and was taken prisoner with him at his last
fatal battle. He was condemned to death with Ms illustrious gene-
ral. Being a Roman Catholic, he refused the assistance of the
Presbyterian clergy, and was not permitted, even on the scaffold,
to receive ghostly comfort, in the only form in wliich his religion
taught him to consider it as effectual. He kissed the axe, avowed
his fidehtv to his sovereign, and died like a soldier Moxtrose's
Memoirs, p. 322 [The Dugald Dalgetty of the Legend of Mon-
-trose, owes his surname at least to tliis gentleman. — Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 191
And gallant Veitch^ npon the field,
A braver face was never seen.
' I presume this gentleman to have been David Veitcli, brother
to Veitch of Davvick, who, with many other of the Peebles-shire
gentry, was taken at Philiphaugh. The following curious accident
took place, some years afterwards, in consequence of his loyal zeal :
— " In the year 1653, when the loyal party did arise in arms
against the English, in the North and West Highlands, some noble-
men and loyal gentlemen, with others, were forward to repair to
them with such forces as they could make ; which the English with
marvelouse diligence, night and day, did bestir themselves to im-
pede ; making their troops of horse and dragoons to pursue the
loyal party in all places, that they might not come to such a con-
siderable number as was designed. It happened one night, that on«
Captain INIasoun, commander of a troop of dragoons, that came
from Carlisle, in England, marching through the town of Sanquhar
in the night, was encountered by one Captain Palmer, commanding
a troop of horse, that came from Ayr, marching eastward ; and,
meeting at the tolhouse, or tolbooth, one David Veitch, brother to
the Laird of Dawick, in Tweeddale, and one of the loyal party,
being prisoner in irons by the English, did arise, and came to the
window at their meeting, and cryed out, that they should fight va-
liantly for King Charles. "WTierethrough, they, taking each other
for the loyal party, did begin a brisk fight, which continued for a
while, till the dragoons, having spent their shot, and finding the
horsemen to be too strong for them, did give ground ; but yet re-
tired in some order towards the castle of Sanquhar, being hotly
pursued by the troop, through the whole town, above a quarter of a
mile, till they came to the castle ; where both parties did, to their
mutual grief, become sensible of their mistake. In this skirmish
there were several killed on both sides, and Captain Palmer liim-
self dangerously wounded, with many more wounded in each troop,
who did peaceably dwell together afterward for a time, until their
wounds were cured, in Sanquhar castle." — Account of Presbytery
of Penjwnt, in Macfarlane^s MSS.
192 MINSTRELSY OF
Now, fare ye weel, Sweet Ennerdale !
Countrie and Idn I quit ye free ;
Cheer up your hearts, brave cavaliers,
For the Grahams are gone to High Germany,
Now brave Montrose he went to France,
And to Germany, to g-ather fame ;
And bold Aboyne is to the sea,
Young Huntly is his noble name.^
Montrose again, that chieftain bold,
Back unto Scotland fair he came,
For to redeem fair Scotland's land,
The pleasant, gallant, worthy Graham !
At the water of Carron he did begin.
And fought the battle to the end ;
Where there were kill'd, for our noble king,
Two thousand of our Danish men.^
Gilbert Menzies, of high degree,
By whom the king's banner was borne ;
^ James, Earl of Aboyne, wlio fled to France, and there died
lieart-broken. It is said liis death was accelerated by the news of
King Charles's execution. He became representative of the Gor-
don family, or Young Huntly, as the ballad expresses it, in conse-
quence of the death of his elder brother, George, who fell in the
battle of Alford — History of Gordon Family.
2 Montrose's foreign auxiliaries, who, by the v.-ay, did not exceed
600 in all.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 193
For a brave cavalier was he,
But now to glory he is gone.^
Then woe to Strachan, and Hacket" baith !
And, Leslie, ill death may thou die !
For ye have betray'd the gallant Grahams,
Who aye were true to majestie.
And the Laird of Assaint has seized Montrose,
And had him into Edinburgh town ;
And frae his body taken the head.
And quarter'd him upon a trone.
And Huntly's^ gone the self-same way.
And our noble king is also gone ;
' Gilbert Menzles, younger of PItfoddells, carried the royal ban-
ner in Montrose's last battle. It bore the headless corpse of
Charles L, with this motto, " Judge and revenge my cause, O
Lord! " Menzies proved liimself worthy of this noble trust, and,
obstinately refusing quarter, died in defence of his charo-e jNIox-
trose's JMemoirs.
2 Sir Charles Racket, an officer in the service of the Estates.
^ George Gordon, second IMarquis of Huntly, one of the verv
few nobles in Scotland who had uniformly adhered to the Kino-
from the very beginning of the troubles, was beheaded by the sen-
tence of the Parliament of Scotland (so calling themselves) upon
the 22d March, 1649, one month and twenty-two days after the
martyrdom of his master. He has been much blamed for not cor-
dially co-operating with IMontrose ; and Bishop Wishart, in the
zeal of partiality for his hero, accuses Huntly of direct treachery.
But he is a true behever, who seals with his blood his creed, reli-
VOL. II. N
194 MINSTRELSY OF
He suffer'd death for our nation,
Our mourning- tears can ne'er be done.
But our brave young king is now come home,
King Charles the Second in degree ;
The Lord send peace into his time,
And God preserve his majestie !
glous or political ; and there are many reasons, short of tMs foul
charo-e, wMcli may have dictated the backward conduct of Huntly
towards IMontrose. He could not forget that, when he first stood
out for the King, Montrose, then the soldier of the Covenant, had
actually made him prisoner ; and we cannot suppose Huntly to have
been so sensible of Montrose's superior military talents, as not to
think himself, as equal in rank, superior in power, and more uni-
form in loyalty, entitled to equally high marks of royal trust and
favour. This much is certain, that the gallant clan of Gordon con-
tributed greatly to Montrose's success ; for the gentlemen of that
name, with the brave and loyal Ogilvies, composed the principal
part of his cavalry.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 19'
APPENDIX.
Note A.
W7io was the traitor, Cromwell, then P. 188, v. 5.
This extraordinary character, to wliom, in crimes and in success,
our days only have produced a parallel, was no favourite in Scot-
land. There occurs the following invective against him in a MS.
in the Advocates' Library. The humour consists in the dialect of
a Highlander, speaking Enghsh, and confusing Cromwell with
Gramach, ugly : —
" Te commonwelt, tat Gramagli ting-
Gar brek hem's Avord, gar de hem's king ;
Gar pay hem's sesse, or take hem's (geers)
We'l no de at, del cow-e de leers;
We'l bide a file amang te crowes, {i.e. in the woods,]
We'l scor te sword, and whiske te bovves ;
And fen her nen sel ge te re, [the king,]
Te del may care for Gromaghee.'"
The following tradition, concerning Cromwell, is preserved bv
an uncommonly direct hne of traditional evidence ; being related
(as I am informed) by the grandson of an eyewitness. When
Cromwell, in 1650, entered Glasgow, he attended divine service iu
the High Church; but the Presbyterian divine who officiated,
poured forth, with more zeal than prudence, the vial of his indig-
nation upon the person, principles, and cause, of the Independent
General. One of Cromwell's officers rose, and wliispered liis com-
mander; who seemed to give hira a short and stern answer, and
196 MINSTRELSY OF
the sermon was concluded without interruption. Among the crowd,
who were assembled to gaze at the General, as he came out of the
church, was a shoemaker, the sou of one of James the Sixth's Scot-
tish footmen. This mau had been born and bred in England, but,
after liis father's death, had settled in Glasgow. Ciomwell eyed
Hm among the crowd, and immediately called him by his name —
tlie man fled ; but, at Cromwell's command, one of his retinue fol-
lowed him, and brought him to the General's lodgings. A num-
ber of the inhabitants remained at the door, waiting the end of
this extraordinary scene. The shoemaker soon came out, in high'
spirits, and, showing some gold, declared, he was going to drink
Cromwell's health. Many attended him to hear the particulars of
his interview : among others the grandfather of the narrator.
The shoemaker said that he had been a playfellow of Cromwell,
when they were both boys, their parents residing in the same
street ; that he had fled, when the General first called to him, tliink-
ing he might owe him some ill will, on account of his father
being in the service of the royal family. He added, that Crom-
well had been so very kind and familiar with him, that he ventured
to ask liim, what the officer had said to him in the church. " He
proposed," said Cromwell, " to pull forth the minister by the ears ;
and I answered, that the preacher was one fool and he another."
In the course of the day, Cromwell held an inter\'iew with the
minister, and contrived to satisfy Ms scruples so eff'ectually, that
tlie evening discourse, by the same man, was tuned to the praise
and glorv of the victor of Nasebv.
Note B.
Nathaniel Gordon, stout and hold.
Did for King Charles wear the blue — P. 189, v. 4.
This gentleman was of the ancient family of Gordon of Gight.
He had served, as a soldier, upon the continent, and acquired great
military skill. When his chief, the IVIarquis of Huntly, took up
arms in 1640, Nathaniel Gordon, then called Major Gordon,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 197
joined him, and was of essential service during tliat short insurrection.
But, being checked for mating prize of a Danish fishing buss, he
left the service of the Marquis, in some disgust. In 1 645, he assisted
at a sharp and dexterous camisade, (as it was then called,) when
the Barons of Haddo, of Gight, of Drum, and other gentlemen,
with only sixty men under their standard, galloped through the old
town of Aberdeen, and, entering the burgh itself, about seven in
the morning, made prisoners and carried off four of the covenant-
ing magistrates, and effected a safe retreat, though the town was
then under the domination of the opposite party. After the death
of the Baron of Haddo, and the severe treatment of Sir George
Gordon of Gight, his cousin -ger man, Major Nathaniel Gordon,
seems to have taken arms in despair of finding mercy at the Cove-
nanters' hands. On the 24th of July, 1645, he came down, with
a band of horsemen, upon the town of Elgin, while St James's fair
was held, and pillaged the merchants of 14,000 merks of money
and merchandise. ' He seems to have joined Montrose, as soon as
he raised the royal standard ; and, as a bold and active partisan,
rendered liim great service. But, in November, 1644, Gordon,
now a colonel, suddenly deserted Montrose, aided the escape of
Forbes of Craigievar, one of his prisoners, and reconciled himseh'
to the kirk, by doing penance for adultery, and for the almost
equally heinous crime of having scared IMr Andrew Cant,^ the fa-
mous apostle of the Covenant. This, however, seems to have been
an artifice, to arrange a correspondence betwixt Montrose and Lord
Gordon, a gaJlant young nobleman, representative of the Huntly
family, and inheriting their loyal spirit, though hitherto engaged in
the service of the Covenant. Colonel Gordon was successful, and re-
turned to the royal camp with his converted chief. Both followed
zealously the fortunes of Montrose, until Lord Gordon fell in tho
battle of Alford, and Nathaniel Gordon was talven at Philiphauoh.
He was one of the ten loyalists, devoted upon that occasion, by the
ParUament, to expiate with their blood the crime of fideUty to their
1 Spalding, vol. ii. pp. 151, 154, 169, ISl, 221. History of the Familg
of Gordon, Edin. 1727, vol. ii. p. 299.
2 He had sent him a l.-tter, which nigh frightened him out of his wits.
— Spalding, vol. ii. p. 231,
198 MINSTRELSY OF
King. Nevertlieless, tlie covenanted nobles would have probably
been satisfied witn tbe death of the gallant Rollock, ^ sharer of
Montrose's dangers and glory, — of Ogilvy, a youth of ei"iteen, whose
crime was the hereditary feud betwi:vt his family and' Argyle, — and of
Sir Phihp Nisbet, a cavalier of the ancient stamp, — had not the
pulpits resounded with the cry, that God required the blood of the
malignants to expiate the sms of the people. " Wliat meaneth,"
exclaimed the ministers, in the perverted language of Scripture —
" What meaneth, then, this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and
the lowing of the oxen ? " The appeal to the judgment of Samuel
was decisive, and the shambles were instantly opened. Nathaniel
Gordon was brought first to execution. He lamented the sins of
his youth — once more (and probably with greater sincerity) requested
absolution from the sentence of excommunication pronounced on
account of adultery — and was beheaded 6th January, 1646.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 199
THE
BATTLE OF PENTLAND HILLS.
We have observed the early antipathy mutually en-
tertained by the Scottish Presbyterians and the house
of Stuart. It seems to have glowed in the breast even
of the good-natured Charles II. He might have re-
membered, that, in 1651, the Presbyterians had fought,
bled, and ruined themselves in his cause. But he
rather recollected their early faults than their late repent-
ance ; and even their services were combined with the
recollection of the absurd and humiliating circumstances
of personal degradation,^ to which their pride and folly
had subjected him, while they professed to espouse his
* Among otlier ridiculous occurrences, it is said, that some of
Charles's gallantries were discovered by a prying neighbour. A
wily old minister was deputed by his brethren to rebuke the King
for this heinous scandal. Being introduced into the royal presence,
he hmited his commission to a serious admonition, that, upon such
occasions, his Majesty should always shut the windows. The King
is said to have recompensed tliis unexpected lenity after the Resto-
iration. He probably remembered the joke, though he might have
forgotten the service.
200 MINSTRELSY OF
cause. As a man of pleasure, he hated their stern and
inflexible rigour, which stig-matized follies even more
deeply than crimes ; and he whispered to his confidants,
that " Presbytery was no religion for a gentleman." It
is not, therefore, wonderful, that, in the first year of
his restoration, he formally re-established Prelacy in
Scotland ; but it is surprising, that, with his father's
example before his eyes, he should not have been satis-
fied to leave at freedom the consciences of those who
could not reconcile themselves to the new system. The
religious opinions of sectaries have a tendency, like the
water of some springs, to become soft and mild, when
freely exposed to the open day. Who can recognise, in
our decent and industrious Quakers, and Anabaptists,
the wild and ferocious tenets M'hich distinguished those
sects, while they were yet honoured with the distinc-
tion of the scourge and the pillory ? Had the system
of coercion against the Presbyterians been continued
until our day, Blair and Rol^ertson would have preached
in the wilderness, and only discovered their powers of
eloquence and composition, by rolling- along- a deeper
torrent of gloomy fanaticism.
The western counties distinguished themselves by
their opposition to the prelatic system. Three hundred
and fifty ministers, ejected from their churches and
livings, wandered through the mountains, sowing- the
seeds of covenanted doctrine, while multitudes of fana-
tical followers pursued them, to reap the forbidden crop.
These conventicles, as they were called, were denoun-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 201
ced by the law, and their frequenters dispersed by mili-
tary force. The genius of the persecuted became stub-
born, obstinate, and ferocious ; and although indulgen-
ces vt^ere tardily g-ranted to some Presbyterian ministers,
iew of the true Covenanters, or Whigs, as they were
called, would condescend to compound with a prelatic
g'overnment, or to listen even to their own favourite
doctrine under the auspices of the King-. From Richard
Cameron, their apostle, this rigid sect acquired the
name of Cameronians. They preached and prayed
ag-ainst the indulgence, and against the Presbyterians
who availed themselves of it, because their accepting-
this royal boon was a tacit acknowledgment of the
King's supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. Upon these
big-oted and persecuted fanatics, and by no means upon
the Presbyterians at large, are to be charg-ed the wild
anarchical principles of anti-monarchy and assassination,
which polluted the period when they flourished.
The insurrection, commemorated and mag-nilied in
the following- ballad, as indeed it has been in some his-
tories, was, in itself, no very important affair. It began
in Dumfries -shire, where Sir James Turner, a soldier
of fortune, was employed to levy the arbitrary fines im-
posed for not attending- the Episcopal churches.^ The
people rose, seized his person, disarmed his soldiers,
and, having- continued together, resolved to march to-
wards Edinburgh, expecting- to be joined by their friends
^ Sir James Turner's Memoirs have been published lately. 1830.
202 MINSTRELSY OF
in that quarter. In this they were disappointed ; and,
being- now diminished to half their numbers, they drew
up on the Pentland Hills, at a place called RuUien
Green. They were commanded by one Wallace ; and
here they awaited the approach of General Dalziel, of
Binns ; who, having- marched to Calder, to meet them
on the Lanark road, and finding-, that, by passing throug-h
CoUington, they had g-ot to the other side of the hills,
cut through the mountains and approached them. Wal-
lace showed both spirit and judgment : he drew up his
men in a very strong- situation, and withstood two
charg-es of Dalziel's cavalry ; but, upon the third shock,
the insurg-ents were broken and utterly dispersed. There
was very little slaug-hter, as the cavalry of Dalziel were
chiefly g-entlemen, who pitied their oppressed and mis-
guided countrymen. There were about fifty killed, and
as many made prisoners. The battle was fought on
the 28th November, 1666 ; a day still observed by the
scattered remnant of the Cameronian sect, who regu-
larly hear a field-preaching- upon the field of battle.
I am obliged for a copy of the ballad to Mr Living--
ston of Airds, who took it down from the recitation of
an old woman residing on his estate.
The gallant Grahams, mentioned in the text, are
Graham of Claverhouse's horse.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER, 203
THE
BATTLE OF PENTLAND HILLS.
This Ballad is copied verhatim from the old Woman s
Recitation,
The gallant Grahams cam from the west,
Wi' their horses black as ony craw ;
The Lothian lads they marched fast,
To be at the Rhyns o' Gallowa.
Betwixt Dumfries town and Arg-yle,
The lads they marched mony a mile ;
Souters and tailors unto them drew,
Their covenants for to renew.
The YVTiigs, they, wi' their merry cracks,
Gar'd the poor pedlars lay down their packs i
But aye sinsyne they do repent
The renewing- o' their Covenant.
204 MINSTRELSY OF
At the Maiichline miiir, where they were review'd,
Ten thousand men in armour show'd ;
But, ere they came to the Brockie's burn,
The half of them did back return.
General Dalyell,^ as I hear tell,
Was our lieutenant-general ;
And Captain Welsh, wi' his wit and skill,
Was to guide them on to the Pentland hill.
General Dalyell held to the hill,
Asking- at them what \^^as their will ;
And who gave them this protestation,
To rise in arms against the nation ?
" Although we all in armour l)e.
It's not against his majesty ;
Nor yet to spill our neighl^our's bluid,
But wi' the country we'll conclude." —
^' Lay down your arms, in the King's name,
And ye shall a' gae safely hame ; " —
But they a' cried out wi' ae consent,
" We'll fight for a broken Covenant." —
" O well," says he, " since it is so,
A wilfu' man never wanted woe." —
^ [General Dalyell — See notes to Old Mortality. "Wavcrley No-
vels, vol. X Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 205'
He then gave a sign unto his lads,
And they drew up in their brigades.
The trumpets blew, and the colours Hew,
And every man to his armour drew ;
The Whigs were never so much aghast,
As to see their saddles toom' sae fast.
The cleverest men stood in the van.
The Whigs they took their heels and ran ;
But such a raking was never seen,
As the raking- o' the Rullien Green.
' Toom — «mpty.
206 MINSTRELSY OF
THE BATTLE OF LOUDON HILL.
The Wliig's, now become desperate, adopted the
most desperate principles; and retaliating-, as far as
they could, the intolerating persecution which they en-
dured, they openly disclaimed allegiance to any monarch
who should not profess Presbytery, and subscribe the
Covenant. These principles were not likely to con-
ciliate the favour of government ; and as we wade
onward in the history of the times, the scenes become
yet darker. At length, one would imagine the parties
had agreed to divide the kingdom of vice betwixt them ;
the hunters assuming to themselves open profligacy and
legalized oppression ; and the hunted, the opposite
attributes of hy|3ocrisy, fanaticism, disloyalty, and mid-
night assassination. The troopers and cavaliers became
enthusiasts in the pursuit of the Covenanters. If
Messrs Kid, King, Cameron, Peden, &c., boasted of
prophetic powers, and were often warned of the approach
of the soldiers by supernatural impulse,^ Captain John
Creichton, on the other side, dreamed dreams, and saw
* In tlie year 1684, Peden, one of the Cameronian preachers,
about ten o'clock at night, sitting at the fire-side, started up to liis
feet, and said, " Flee, auld Sandie, [thus he designed himself,]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 207
visions, (chiefly, indeed, after having- drunk hard,) in
which the lurking-holes of the rebels were discovered
to his imagination.^ Our ears are scarcely more shocked
with the profane execrations of the persecutors," than
with the strange and insolent familiarity used towards
the Deity by the persecuted fanatics. Their indecent
modes of prayer, their extravagant expectations of mi-
raculous assistance, and their supposed inspirations,
might easily furnish out a tale, at which the good would
sigh, and the gay would laugh.^
and liide yourself ! for Colonel is coming to tliis touse to
apprehend you ; and I advise you all to do the like, for lie will be
liere within an hour ;" which came to pass : and when they had made
a very narrow search, within and without the house, and went round
the thorn bush, under which he was lying praying, they went off
without their prey. He came in, and said, " And has this gentle-
man [designed by his name] given poor Sandie, and tliir poor tilings,
such a fright ? For this night's work, God shall give him such a
blow, within a few days, that all the physicians on earth shall not
be able to cure ;" which came to pass, for he died in great misery.
— Life of Alexander Peden.
^ See the life of this booted apostle of prelacy, written by Swift,
who had collected all his anecdotes of persecution, and appears to
have enjoyed them accordingly. [Scott's edition of Swift, vol. x.
p. 101.]
2 " They raved," saysPeden's historian, " like fleslily devils, when
the mist shrouded from their pursuit the wandering Whigs." One
gentleman closed a declaration of vengeance against the conventi-
clers, with this strange imprecation, " Or may the devil make my
ribs a gridiron to my soul ! " — MS. Account of the Presbytery of
Penpont. Our armies swore terribly in Flanders, but nothing to
this. *
^ Peden complained heavily, that, after a heavy struggle with the
* [See Tristram Shandy.]
208 MINSTRELSY OF
In truth, extremes always approach each other ; and
the superstition of the Roman Cathohcs was, in some
degree, revived, even bj their most deadly enemies.
They are ridiculed, by the cavaliers, as wearing- the re-
lics of their saints by way of amulet : —
" She shewed to me a box, wlierein lay liid
The pictures of CargU and Mr Kid ;
A sphnter of the tree, ou which they VTere slain ;
A double inch of JMajor Weir's best cane ;
Rathillet's sword, beat down to table knife,
Wliich took at Magus' Muir a bishop's life ;
The worthy Welch's spectacles, who saw,
That windle-straws would fight against the law ;
They, windle-straws, were stoutest of the two,
They kept their ground, away the prophet flew ;
And lists of all the prophets' names were seen
At Pentland Hills, Aird IVIoss, and RuUen Green.
" ' Don't think,' she says, ' these holy things are foppery j
They're precious antidotes against the power of popery.' "
Tlie Caineronian Tooth — Pennycuick's Poems, p. 110.
The militia and standing- army soon became unequal
to the task of enforcing conformity, and suppressing
conventicles. In their aid, and to force compliance with
a test proposed by government, the Highland clans were
raised, and poured down into Ayrshire. An armed host
of undisciplined mountaineers, speaking a different lan-
guage, and professing, many of them, another religion,
devil, he had got above him, spwr-^aZ/ec? Mm hard, and obtained a wind
to carry him from Ireland to Scotland, when, behold ! another per-
son had set sail, and reaped the ad^'antage of Ms prayer-icind be-
fore he could embark.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 209
were let loose, to ravage and plunder tliis unfortunate
country ; and it is truly astonishing- to find how few
acts of cruelty they perpetrated, and how seldom they
added murder to pillage.^ Additional levies of horse
were also raised, under the name of Independent Troops,
and great part of them jjlaced under the command of
^ Cleland thus describes tMs extraordinary army :
— " Those who were their chief commanders.
As such Avho bore the pirnie standarts,
"Who led the van and drove the rear.
Were rig-ht Avell mounted of their gear ;
With brogues, and trews, and ijirnie plaids.
With good blue bonnets on their heads.
Which, on the one side, had a flipe,
Adorn'd with a tobacco-pipe.
With durk, and snap-work, and snuff-mill,
A bag, which they with onions fillj
And, as their strict observers say,
A tup-horn filled with usquebay;
A slasht-out coat beneath her plaides,
A targe of timber, nails, and hides j
With a long two-handed sword.
As good's the country can afford.
Had they not need of bulk and bones.
Who fought with all these arms at once ?
Of mortal honestie they're clean.
Nought like religion they retain ;
In nothing they're accounted sharp,
Except in bag-pipe, and in harp j
For a misobliging word.
She'll durk her neighbour o'er the boord,
And then sheM flee like fire from flint.
She'll scarcely ward the second dintj
If any ask her of her thrift.
Forsooth her nainsell lives by thift."
Cleland 's Poems, Edin. 1S97, p. 12,
VOL. II, O
210 MINSTRELSY OF
James Graham of Claverhouse, a man well known to
fame by his subsequent title of Viscount Dundee, but
better remembered, in the western shires, under the
designation of the Bloody Clavers. In truth, he appears
to have combined the virtues and vices of a savage chief.*-
Fierce, unbending, and rigorous, no emotion of compas-
sion prevented his commanding and witnessing every
detail of military execution against the non-conform-
ists. Undauntedly brave, and steadily faithful to his
prince, he sacrificed himself in the cause of James, when
he was deserted by all the world. If we add, to these
attributes, a goodly person, complete skill in martial
exercises, and that ready and decisive character, so es-
sential to a commander, we may form some idea of this
extraordinary character. The Whigs, whom he perse-
cuted, daunted by his ferocity and courage, conceived
him to be impassive to their bullets,^ and that he had
' [Compare the cliaracter of Claverliouse, as drawn in greater
detail, and with richer colours, long afterwards, in the Tale of Old
Mortality. Waverley Novels, vol. x. pp. 57, 58. See also Lay
of the Last Minstrel, Introduction and Notes to Canto II — Ed.]
2 It was, and is believed, that the devil furnished his favourites,
among the persecutors, with what is called joroo/ against leaden bul-
lets, but against those only. During the battle of Pentland-hills,
Paton of Meadowhead conceived he saw the balls hop harmlessly
down from General Dalziel's boots, and, to counteract the spell,
loaded his pistol with a piece of silver coin. But Dalziel, having
his eye on him, drew back behind his servant, who was shot dead.
.^Paton's Life. At a skirmish in Ayrshire, some of the wan-
derers defended themselves in a sequestered house, by the side of
a lake. They aimed repeatedly, but in vain, at the commander of
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 211
sold himself, for temporal greatness, to the seducer of
mankind. It is still believed that a cup of wine, pre-
sented to him by his butler, changed into clotted blood ;
and that, when he plunged his feet into cold water, their
touch caused it to boil. The steed, which bore him,
was supposed to be the g-ift of Satan ; and precipices
are shown, where a fox could hardly keep his feet, down
which the infernal charger conveyed him safely, in pur-
suit of the wanderers. It is remembered with terror,
that Claverse was successful in every eng-ag-ement with
the Whigs, except that at Drumclog-, or Loudon Hill,
which is the subject of the following- ballad. The his-
the assailants, an English officer, until, their ammunition running
short, one of them loaded his piece with the ball at the head of the
tongs, and succeeded in shooting the hitherto impenetrable captain.
To accommodate Dundee's fate to their own hypothesis, the Ca-
meronian tradition runs, that in the battle of Killicrankie he fell,
not by the enemy's fire, but by the pistol of one of his own ser-
vants, who, to avoid the spell had loaded it with a silver button
from his coat. One of their writers argues thus : " Perhaps some
may think this, anent proof shot, a paradox, and be ready to object
here, as formerly, concerning Bishop Sharpe and Dalziel How-
can the dev-il have, or give, power to save hfe ? Without entering
upon the thing in its reality, I shall only observe, 1. That it is
neither in his power, or of his nature, to be a saviour of men's
lives ; he is called ApoUyon, the destroyer. 2. That, even in this
case, he is said only to give enchantment against one kind of metal,
and tliis does not save life ; for, though lead could not take Sharpe
and Claverhouse's lives, yet steel and silver could do it ; and, for
Dalziel, though he died not on the field, yet he did not escape the
arrows of the Almighty." — God's Judgment against Persecutors.
If the reader be not now convinced of the thing in its reality, I
have nothing to add to such exquisite reasoning-.
212 MINSTRELSY OP
tory of Burly, the hero of the piece, will bring- us im-
mediately to the causes and circumstances of that event.
John Balfour of Kinloch, commonly called Burly,^
was one of the fiercest of the proscribed sect. A gen-
tleman by birth, he was, says his biographer, " zealous
and honest-hearted, courageous in every enterprise, and
a brave soldier, seldom any escaping- that came in his
hands." — Life of John JBcdfour. Creichton says, that
lie was once chamberlain to Archbishop Sharpe, and,
by negligence or dishonesty, had incurred a large arrear,
which occasioned his being- active in his master's assas-
sination. But of this I know no other evidence than
Creichton's assertion, and a hint in Wodrow. Burly
(for that is his most common designation) was brother-
in-law to Hackston of Rathillet, a wild enthusiastic
character, who joined daring- courage and skill in the
sword to the fiery zeal of his sect. Burly, himself, was
less eminent for religious fervour, than for the active
and violent share which he had in the most desperate
enterprises of his party. His name does not appear
among- the Covenanters, who were denounced for the
affair of Pentland. But, in 1677? Robert Hamilton,
afterwards commander of the insurgents at Loudon
Hill, and Bothwell Bridge, with several other non-con-
formists, were assembled at this Burly's house, in Fife.
There they were attacked by a party of soldiers, com-
manded by Captain Carstairs, whom they beat off,
^ [This is another of the heroes of Old Mortality. Waverley
Novels, vol. ix. p. 295, &c Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 213
wounding" desperately one of his party. For this re-
sistance to authority, they were declared rebels. The
next exploit in which Burly was engag-ed, was of a
bloodier comple;iion and more dreadful celebrity. It is
well known, that James Sharpe, Archbishop of St An-
drews, was regarded by the rigid Presbyterians, not only
as a renegade, who had turned back from the spiritual
plough, but as the principal author of the rigours ex-
ercised against their sect. He employed, as an agent
of his oppression, one Carmichael, a decayed gentleman.
The industry of this man, in procuring information,
and in enforcing the severe penalties against conventi-
clers, having excited the resentment of the Cameroni-
ans, nine of their number, of whom Burly and his bro-
ther-in-law, Hackston, were the leaders, assembled with
the purpose of waylaying and murdering Carmichael ;
but, while they searched for him in vain, they received
tidings that the Archbishop himself was at hand. The
party resorted to prayer ; after which they agreed una-
nimously that the Lord had delivered the wicked Ha-
man into their hand. In the execution of the supposed
will of Heaven, they agreed to put themselves under
the command of a leader ; and they requested Hack-
ston of Rathillet to accept the office, which he decli-
ned, alleging, that, should he comply with their request,
the slaughter might be imputed to a private quarrel,
which existed betwixt him and the Archbishop. The
command ^vas then offered to Burly, who accepted it
without scruple; and they galloped off in pursuit of
214 MINSTRELSY OF
the Archbishop's carriage, which contained himself and
his daughter. Being- well mounted, they easily over-
took and disarmed the prelate's attendants. Burly, cry-
ing- out, " Judas, be taken ! " rode up to the carriage,
wounded the postilion, and hamstrung one of the horses.
He then fired into the coach a piece, charged with se-
veral bullets, so near, that the archbishop's gown was
set on fire. The rest, coming up, dismounted, and
dragged him out of the carriage, when, frightened and
wounded, he crawled towards Hackston, who still re-
mained on horseliack, and begged for mercy. The stern
enthusiast contented himself with answering, that he
would not himself lay a hand on him. Burly and his
men again fired a volley upon the kneeling old man ;
and were in the act of riding off, when one, who re-
mained to girth his horse, unfortunately heard the
daughter of their victim call to the servant for help
exclaiming, that his master was still alive. Burly then
again dismounted, struck off the prelate's hat with his
foot, and split his skull with his shable, (broadsword^,)
although one of the party (probably Rathillet) exclaim-
ed, " Spare these grey hairs f"^ The rest pierced
^ They believed Sliarpe to be proof against shot ; for one of tbe
murderers told Wodrow, that at the sight of cold iron his courage
fell. They no longer doubted this, when they found in his pocket
a small clew of silk, rolled round a bit of parchment, marked with
two long words, in Hebrew or Chaldaic characters. Accordingly,
it is still averred that the balls only left blue marks on the prelate's
neck and breast, although the discharge was so near as to burn his
clothes.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 215
liim with repeated wounds. They phiiidered the car-
riage, and rode off, leaving, beside the mangled corpse,
the daughter, who was herself wounded, in her pious
endeavour to interpose betwixt her father and his mur-
derers. The murder is accurately represented, in has
relief, upon a beautiful monument, erected to the me-
mory of Archbishop Sharpe, in the Metropolitan Church
of St Andrews.^ This memoralde example of fanatic
revenge was acted upon Magus Muir, near St Andrews,
3d May, 1679."
Burly was, of course, obliged to leave Fife ; and,
upon the 25th of the same month, he arrived in Evan-
dale, in Lanarkshire, along with Hackston, and a fellow
called Dingwall, or Daniel, one of the same bloody
band. Here he joined his old friend Hamilton, already
' The murder of Arclibisliop Sliarpe lias recently been made the
subject of a very noble picture by Mr Wm. Allan, A.R.A. 1830.
2 The question, whether the Bishop of St Andrews' death was
murder, was a shibboleth, or experimeritum crucis, frequently put
to the apprehended conventiclers. Isabel Alison, executed at Edin-
burgh, 2()th January, 1681, was interrogated, before the Privy
Council, if she conversed with David Hackston ? ' ' I answered,
I did converse with him, and I bless the Lord that ever I saw him ;
for I never saw ought in him but a godly pious youth. They asked,
if the killing of the Bishop of St Andrews was a pious act ? I an-
swered, I never heard him say he killed liim ; but, if God moved
any, and put it upon them to execute his righteous judgment upon
him, I have nothing to say to that. They asked me, when saw ye
John Balfour (Burly,) that pious youth? I answered, I have seen
him. They asked, when ? I answered, these are frivolous ques-
tions ; I am not bound to answer them." — Cloud of Witfiesses, p.
85.
216 MINSTRELSY OF
mentioned ; and, as they resolved to take up arms, they
were soon at the head of such a body of the " chased
and tossed western men," as they thought equal to keep
the field. They resolved to commence their exploits
upon the 29th of May, 1679, being the anniversary of
the Restoration, appointed to be kept as a holyday, by
act of ParKament ; an institution which they esteemed
a presumptuous and unholy solemnity. Accordingly,
at the head of eighty horse, tolerably appointed, Hamil-
ton, Burly, and Hackston, entered the royal burgh of
Rutherglen ; extinguished the bonfires made in honour
of the day; and burned at the cross the acts of Parliament
in favour of Prelacy, and for suppression of conventicles,
as well as those acts of council which regulated the in-
dulgence granted to Presbyterians. Against all these
acts they entered their solemn protest, or testimony, as
they called it ; and, having affixed it to the cross, con-
cluded with prayer and psalms. Being now joined by
a large body of foot, so that their strength seems to
have amounted to five or six hundred men, though
very indifferently armed, they encamped upon Loudon
HiU. Claverhouse, who was in garrison at Glasgow,
instantly marched against the insurgents, at the head of
his own troop of cavalry and others, amounting to about
one hundred and fifty men. He arrived at Hamilton
on the 1st of June, so unexpectedly, as to make prisoner
John King, a famous preacher among the wanderers ;
and rapidly continued his march, carrying his captive
along with him, till he came to the village of Drum-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 217
clog", about a mile east of Loudon Hill, and twelve
miles south-west of Hamilton. At some distance from
this place, the insurgents were skilfully posted in a
boggy strait, almost inaccessible to cavalry, having- a
broad ditch in their front. Claverhouse's dragoons dis-
charged their carabines, and made an attempt to charge ;
but the nature of the ground threw them into total dis-
order. Burly, who commanded the handful of horse
belonging to the Whigs, instantly led them down on the
disordered squadrons of Claverhouse, who were, at the
same time, vigorously assaulted by the foot, headed by
the gallant Cleland,^ and the enthusiastic Hackston.
Claverhouse himself was forced to fly, and was in the
' William Cleland, a man of considerable genius, was author of
several poems, published in 1697. His Hudibrastic verses are poor
scurrilous trasb, as the reader may judge from the description of the
Highlanders, already quoted. But, in a wild rhapsody, entitled,
*' Hollo, my Fancy, "he displays some imagination. His anti-mo-
narchical principles seem to break out in the following lines : —
" Fain would I know (if beasts have any reason)
Jf falcons killing eagles do commit a treason f "
He was a strict non-conformist, and, after the Revolution, became
lieutenant-colonel of the Earl of Angus's regiment, called the Ca-
meronian regiment. He was killed 21st August, 1689, in the
churchyard of Dunkeld, which his corps manfully and successfully
defended against a superior body of Highlanders. His son was the
author of the letter prefixed to the Dunciad, and is said to have
been the notorious Cleland, who, in circumstances of pecuniary
embarrassment, prostituted his talents to the composition of indecent
and infamous works ; but this seems inconsistent with dates, and
the latter personage was probably the grandson of Colonel Cleland.
218 MINSTRELSY OF
Utmost dang-er of being- taken ; his horse's belly being-
cut open by the stroke of a scythe, so that the poor
animal trailed his Ijowels for more than a mile. In his
Hight, he passed King-, the minister, lately his prisoner,
]>nt now deserted by his guard in the g-eneral confusion.
The preacher hollowed to the flying commander, " to
halt, and to take his prisoner M'ith him ; " or, as others
say, " to stay, and take the afternoon's preaching."
Claverhouse, at length remounted, continued his re-
treat to Glasgow. He lost, in the skirmish, about
twenty of his troopers, and his own cornet and kins-
man, Robert Graham, whose fate is alluded to in the
ballad. Only four of the other side were killed, among-
whom was Dingwall, or Daniel, an associate of Burly
in Sharpe's murder. " The rebels," says Creichton,
" finding- the cornet's body, and supposing- it to be that
of Clavers, because the name of Graham was wrought
in the shirt-neck, treated it with the utmost inhumanity ;
cutting' off the nose ; picking- out the eyes ; and stabbing-
it through in a hundred places." The same charge is
]>roug-ht by Guild, in his Bellum jBothuellianuniy in
which occurs the following account of the skirmish at
Drumclog- : —
Mors est occiduus siirgit qui celsus in oris.
Nomine Loudunum,^ fossis puteisque profundis.
Quo scatet hie tellus, et aprico gr amine tectus :
Hue eoUectafuit, numeroso inilite cincta,
Turbaferox, matres, pue7'i, iimuptcEque puellce,
Quam parat egregid Grcemus dispersere turmd.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 219
Venit, et primo campo discedere cog it ;
.Fo.^t hos et alios, coeno provolvit inerti ;
At numerosa coliors, campum dispersa per omnem,
Circumfusa ruit ; turmasque, indagine captas,
Aggreditur ; virtus non hie, nee prof ait ensis ;
Corripuere fugam, viridi scd gramine tectis,
Precipitata peritfossis pars plurima, quorum
Cornipedes hoesere luto, sessore rejeeto :
Turn rahiosa eohors, misereri nescia, stratos
Invadit laceratque viros : hie signifer, eheu !
Trajectus glohulo, Groemus, quo fort ior alter,
Inter Scotigenas fuerat, necjustior idlus ;
Hunc manihus rapuere feris, faciemque virilem
Foedariint, lingua, auriculis, manihusque resectis,
Aspera diffusa spargentes saxa cerehro.
Vix dux ip)sefugd salvus, namque exta trahebat
Vulnere tardatus sonipes generosus hiante ;
Tnsequitur clamor e eohors fanatica, namqtie
Crudelis semper timidus si vicerit unquam.
jNIS. Bellum Botliuellianum.
Although Burly was among- the most active leaders
in the action, he was not the commander-in-chief, a^s
one would conceive from the ballad. That honour be-
longed to Robert Hamilton, brother to Sir William
Hamilton of Preston, a gentleman, who, like most of
those at Drumclog-, had imbibed the very wildest prin-
ciples of fanaticism. The Cameronian account of the
insurrection states, that " Mr Hamilton discovered a
great deal of bravery and valour, both in the conflict
with, and pursuit of, the enemy ; but when he and some
others were pursuing- the enemy, others flew too greedi-
ly upon the spoil, small as it was, instead of pursuing
220 MINSTRELSY OF
the victory : and some, without Mr Hamilton's know-
ledge, and against his strict command, gave five of these
bloody enemies quarters, and then let them go : this
greatly grieved Mr Hamilton, when he saw some of
Babel's brats spared, after the Lord had delivered them
to their hands, that they might dash them against the
stones. Psalm cxxxvii. 9- In his own account of
this, he reckons the sparing of these enemies, and let-
ting them go, to be among their first stepping aside ;
for which he feared that the Lord would not honour
them to do much more for him ; and says, that he was
neither for taking favours from, nor giving favours to,
the Lord's enemies."
Burly was not a lil^ely man to fall into this sort of
backsHding. He disarmed one of the Duke of Hamil-
ton's servants who had been in the action, and desired
him to tell his master, he would keep, till meeting,
the pistols he had taken from him. The man described
Burly to the Duke as a little stout man, squint-eyed,
and of a most ferocious aspect ; from which it appears
that Burl/s figure corresponded to his manners, and
perhaps gave rise to his nickname — Burly signifying
strong. He was with the insurgents till the battle of
Bothwell Bridge, and afterwards fled to Holland. He
joined the Prince of Orange, but died at sea during
the expedition. The Cameronians still believe he had
obtained liberty from the Prince to be avenged of those
who had persecuted the Lord's people ; but, through his
death, the laudable design of purging the land with
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 221
tlieir blood, is supposed to have fallen to the ground..
— Life of Balfour of Kinloch.
The consequences of the battle of Loudon Hill will
be detailed in the introduction to the next ballad.
222 MINSTRELSY OF
THE
BATTLE OF LOUDON HILL.
You'l marvel when I tell ye o'
Our noble Burly, and his train ;
Wlien last he march'd up through the land,
Wi' sax-and-twenty Westland men.
Than they I ne'er o' braver heard.
For they had a' baith wit and skill ;
They proved right well, as I heard tell,
As they cam up o'er Loudon Hill.
Weel prosper a' the gospel lads,
That are into the west countrie ;
Aye wicked Claver'se to demean,
And aye an ill deid may he die !
For he's drawn up i' battle rank,
An' that baith soon an' hastilie ;
But they wha live till simmer come,
Some bludie days for this will see.
2
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 223
But up spak cruel Claver'se, then,
Wi' hastie wit, an' wicked skill ;
"=' Gae fire on yon Westlan' men ;
I think it is my sov'reign's will." —
But up bespake liis Cornet, then,
" It's be wi' nae consent o' me !
I ken I'll ne'er come back again,
An' mony mae as weel as me.
" There is not ane of a' yon men,
But wha is worthy other three ;
There is na ane amang- them a'.
That in his cause will stap to die.
" An* as for Burly, him I knaw ;
He's a man of honour, l)irth, and fame ;
Gie him a sword into his hand.
He'll fig-ht thysell an' other ten."—
But up spake wicked Claver'se, then,
I wat his heart it raise fu' hie !
And he has cried that a' might hear,
" Man, ye hae sair deceived me.
^' I never ken'd the like afore,
Na, never since I came frae hame,
224 , MINSTRELSY OF
That you sae cowardly here sulci prove,
An' yet come of a noble Graeme." —
But up bespake his Cornet, then,
" Since that it is your honour's will,
Mysell shall be the foremost man.
That shall gie fire on Loudon Hill —
" At your command I'll lead them on,
But yet wi' nae consent o' me ;
For weel I ken I'll ne'er return,
And mony mae as weel as me." — ^
Then up he drew in battle rank ;
I wat he had a bonny train !
But the first time that bullets flew,
Aye he lost twenty o' his men.
Then back he came the way he gaed,
I wat right soon and suddenly !
He gave command amang his men.
And sent them back, and bade them flee.
Then up came Burly, bauld an' stout,
Wi's little train o' Westland men ;
^ [See tlie account of tliis battle in Old Mortality. Waverley
Novels, vol. X. pp. 120-125 Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 225
Wha mair than either aiiice or twice
In Edinburirh confined had been.
They hae been up to London sent,
An' yet they're a' come safely down ;
Sax troop o' horsemen they hae beat,
And chased them into Glassrow town.
VOL. ir.
226 MINSTRELSY OF
THE
BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIDGE.
It has been often remarked, that the Scottish, not-
withstanding their national courage, were always unsuc-
cessful when fighting for their religion. The cause
lay, not in the principle, but in the mode of its appli-
cation. A leader, like Mahomet, who is at the same
time the prophet of his tribe, may avail himself of
religious enthusiasm, because it comes to the aid of
discipline, and is a powerful means of attaining the des-
potic command, essential to the success of a general.
But, among the insurgents, in the reigns of the last
Stuarts, were mingled preachers, who taught different
shades of the Presbyterian doctrine ; and, minute as
these shades sometimes were, neither the several shep-
herds, nor their flocks, could cheerfully unite in a com-
mon cause. This will appear from the transactions
leading to the battle of Bothwell Bridge.
We have seen that the party, which defeated Cla-
verhouse at Loudon Hill, were Cameronians, whose
principles consisted in disov/ning all temporal autho-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 227
rity, which did not flow from and through the Solemn
Leag-ue and Covenant. This doctrine, which is still
retained by a scattered remnant of the sect in Scotland,
is in theory and would be in practice, inconsistent with
the safety of any well-regulated g-overnment, because
the Covenanters deny to their g-overnors that tolera-
tion, which was iniquitously refused to themselves.
In many respects, therefore, we cannot be surprised at
the anxiety and rig-our with which the Cameronians
were persecuted, althoug-h we may be of opinion, that
milder means would have induced a melioration of their
principles. These men, as already noticed, excepted
ag-ainst such Presbyterians, as were contented to exer-
cise their worship under the indulg-ence granted by
g-overnment, or, in other words, who would have been
satisfied with toleration for themselves, without insist-
ing- upon a revolution in the state, or even in the church
establishment.
When, however, the success at Loudon Hill was
spread abroad, a number of preachers, gentlemen, and
common people, who had embraced the more moderate
doctrine, jonied the army of Hamilton, thinking that
the difference in their opinions ought no longer to pre-
vent their actins: in the common cause. The insurgents
were repulsed in an attack upon the town of Glas-
gow, which, however, Claverhouse, shortly afterwards,
thought it necessary to evacuate. They were now nearly
in full possession of the west of Scotland, and pitched
their camp at Hamilton, where, instead of modelling and
228 MINSTRELSY OF
disciplining their army, the Cameronians and Erastians
(for so the violent insurgents chose to call the more
moderate Presbyterians) only debated, in council of war,,
the real cause of their being- in arms. Robert Hamil-
ton, their g-eneral, was the leader of the lirst party;;
Mr John Walsh, a minister, headed the Erastians. The
latter so far prevailed, as to get a declaration drawn up,
in which they owned the King's government ; but the
publication of it gave rise to new quarrels. Each fac-
tion had its own set of leaders, all of whom aspired to
be officers ; and there were actually two councils of war
issuing contrary orders and declarations at the same
time ; the one owning the King, and the other designing
him a malignant, bloody, and perjured tyrant.
Meanwhile, their numbers and zeal were magnified
at Edinburgh, and great alarm excited lest they should
march eastward. Not only was the foot militia in-
stantly called out, but proclamations were issued, di-
recting all the heritors, in the eastern, southern, and
northern shires, to repair to the King's host, with their
best horses, arms, and retainers. In Fife, and other
countries, where the Presbyterian doctrines prevailed,
many gentlemen disobeyed this order, and were after-
wards severely hned. Most of them alleged, in excuse,
the apprehension of disquiet from their wives. ^ A re-
' *' BalcanquTiall of tliat Uk alleged, that liis liorses were robbed,
but sliunned to take the declaration, for fear of disquiet from liis
■wife. Young of Kirkton— bis ladyes dangerous sickness, and bit-
ter curses if be sbould leave ber, and the appearance of abortion on
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 229
spectable force, however, was soon assembled ; and
James, Duke of Buccleiich and Monmouth, was sent
clown, by Charles II., to take the command, furnished
with instructions, not unfavourable to the Presbyte-
rians. The royal army now moved slowly forward
towards Hamilton, and reached Bothwell moor on the
22d of June, 1679. The insurgents were encamped
chiefly in the Duke of Hamilton's park, along- the
Clyde, which separated the two armies. Bothwell
bridge, which is long and narrow, had then a portal in
the middle, with, gates, wdiich the Covenanters shut,
and barricadoed with stones and logs of timber. This
important post was defended by three hundred of their
best men, under Hackston of Rathillet, and Hall of
Haughhead. Early in the morning, this party cross-
ed the bridge, and skirmished with the royal vanguard,
now advanced as far as the village of Bothwell. But
Hackston speedily retired to his post, at the end of
Bothwell bridge.
While the dispositions, made by the Duke of Mon-
mouth, announced his purpose of assailing the pass, the
more moderate of the insurgents resolved to offer terms.
Ferguson of Kaitloch, a gentleman of landed fortune,
and David Hume, a clergyman, carried to the Duke of
Monmouth a supplication, demanding free exercise of
their religion, a free parliament, and a free general as-
his offering to go from her. And many others pled, in general
terms, that their wives opposed or contradicted their going. But
the Justiciary Court found this defence totally irrelevant." — FouN-
tainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 88.
230 MINSTRELSY OF
sembly of the cliiirch. The Duke heard then' de-
mands with his natural mildness, and assured them he
would interpose with his Majesty in their behalf, on
condition of their immediately dispersing themselves,
and yielding' up their arms. Had the insurgents been
all of the moderate opinion, this proposal would have
been accepted, much bloodshed saved, and, perhaps,
some permanent advantage derived to their party ; or
had they been all Cameronians, their defence would
have been fierce and desperate. But, while their motley
and misassorted officers were debating upon the Duke's
proposal, his field-pieces were already planted on the
western side of the river, to cover the attack of the foot
guards, who were led on by Lord Livingstone to force
the bridge. Here Hackston maintained his post with
zeal and courage ; nor was it until all his annnunition
was expended, and every support denied him by the
general, that he reluctantly abandoned the important
pass.^ When his party was drawn back, the Duke's
^ There is an accurate representation of tliis part of tlie engage-
ment in an old painting, of vvliicli there are two copies extant ; one
in the collection of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, the other at
Dalkeith House. The whole appearance of the ground, even in-
cluding a few old houses, is the same which the scene now presents.
The removal of the porch, or gateway, upon the bridge, is the only
perceptible difference. The Duke of Monmouth, on a wliite charger,
directs the march of the party engaged in storming the bridge, while
his artillery gall the motley ranks of the Covenanters. An engra-
ving of this painting would be acceptable to the curious ; and I am
satisfied an opportunity of copying it, for that purpose, would be
THE SCOTTTSH BORDER. 231
army, slovvly, and with tlieir cannon in front, defiled
along the bridge, and formed in line of battle, as they
came over the river ; the Duke commanded the foot,
and Claverhouse the cavalry.
It would seem-, that these movements could not have
been performed without at least some loss, had the
enemy been serious in opposing- them. But the insur-
gents were otherwise employed. With the strang-est
delusion that ever fell upon devoted beings, they chose
these precious moments to cashier their officers, and
elect others in their room. In this important operation,
they were at length disturbed by the Duke's cannon, at
the very first discharge of which the horse of the Cove-
nanters wheeled, and rode off, breaking and trampling
down the ranks of their infantry in their flight. The
Cameronian account blames Weir of Greenridge, a com-
mander of the horse, who is termed a sad Achan in the
camp. The more moderate party lay the whole blame
on Hamilton, whose conduct, they say, left the world
to debate, whether he was most traitor, coward, or fool.
The generous Monmouth was anxious to spare the
blood of his infatuated countrymen, by which he in-
curred much blame among the high-flying royalists.
Lucky it was for the insurgents that the battle did not
happen a day later, when old General Dalzell, who
divided with Claverhouse the terror and hatred of the
readily granted by either of tlie noble proprietors. 1810. .. . The
picture has been engraved in outline for one of the publications of
the Bannatyne Club. 1830.
232 MINSTRELSY OF
Whigs, arrived in the camp, with a commission to su-
persede Monmouth, as commander-in-chief. He is said
to have upbraided the Duke, pubhcly, with his lenity,
and heartily to have wished his own commission had
come a day sooner, when, as he expressed himself,
" These rog-ues should never more have troubled the
King- or country." ^ But, notwithstanding the merciful
orders of the Duke of Monmouth, the cavalry made
great havoc among the fugitives, of whom four hundred
were slain. Guild thus expresses himself: —
JEt ni Dux validus ienidsset forte catervas,
Vix quisquam profugus vltam servasset inertem :
Noil audita Duds verum inandata supremi
Omnibus, insequitur fugientes plurima turha,
Per que ogros, passim, trepidu formidine captos
Obtruncat, soevumqve adigit per viscera ferrum.
BIS, Bellum Botliuellianum.
' Dalzell was a man of savage manners. A prisoner having railed
at lilm, while under examination before the Privy Council, calling
him " a Muscovia beast, who used to roast men, the general, in a
passion, struck him with the pomel of his shabble, on the face, till
the blood sprung." — Fountainhall, vol. i. p. 159. He had
sworn never to shave his beard after the death of Charles the First.
The venerable appendage reached his girdle, and as he wore always
an old-fashioned buff-coat, his appearance in London never failed
to attract the notice of the children and of the mob. King Charles
II. used to swear at liim, for bringing such a rabble of boys to-
gether, to be squeezed to death, while they gaped at his long beard
and antique habit, and exhorted him to shave and dress hke a Chris-
tian, to keep the poor bairns, as Dalzell expressed it, out of danger.
In compliance with this request, he once appeared at court fashion-
ably dressed, excepting the beard ; but, when the King had laughed
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 233
The same deplorable circumstances are more elegant-
ly bewailed in Wilson's Clyde^ a poem, reprinted in
Scottish Descriptive Poems, edited by the late Dr
John Leyden, Edinburgh, 1 803 : —
" "Wliere Botliwell's bridge connects the margin steep,
And Clyde, below, runs silent, strong, and deep,
The hardy peasant, by oppression driven
To battle, deem'd his cause the cause of heaven ;
Unskill'd in arms, with useless courage stood,
While gentle IMonmouth grieved to shed liis blood ;
But fierce Dundee, inflamed with deadly hate,
In vengeance for the great Montrose's fate,
Let loose the sword, and to the hero's shade
A barbarous hecatomb of victims paid."
The object of Claverhouse's revenge, assigned by
Wilson, is grander, though more remote and less na-
tural, than that in the ballad, which imputes the seve-
rity of the pursuit to his thirst to revenge the death of
his cornet and kinsman, at Drumclog ;^ and to the quar-
sufficiently at the metamorphosis, he resumed his old dress, to the
great joy of the boys, his usual atterwlants Creichton's Memoirs,
p. 102.
^ There is some reason to conjecture, that the revenge of the
Cameronians, if successful, would have been little less sanguinary
than that of. the royalists. Creichton mentions, that they had
erected in their camp, a high pair of gallows, and prepared a quan-
tity of halters, to hang such prisoners as might fall into their hands ;
and he admires the forbearance of the King's soldiers, who, when
they returned with their prisoners, brought them to the very spot
"where the gallows stood, and guarded them there, without offering
to hang a single individual. Guild, in the Bellum BothueUianum,
234 MINSTRELSY OF
rel betwixt Claverliouse and Monmouth, it ascribes^
with great naivete, the bloody fate of the latter. Local
tradition is always apt to trace foreign events to the
domestic causes, which are more immediately in the
narrator's yiew. There is said to be another song upon
this battle, once very popular, but I have not been able
to recover it. This copy is given from recitation.
There were two Gordons of Earlstoun, father and
son. They were descended of an ancient family in the
west of Scotland, and their progenitors were believed
to have been favourers of the reformed doctrine, and
possessed of a translation of the Bible, as early as the
days of Wickliife. William Gordon, the father, was,
in 1663, summoned before the Privy Council, for
keej)ing conventicles in his house and woods. By
another act of Council, he was banished out of Scotland,
but the sentence was never put into execution. In
1667? Earlstoun was turned out of his house, which
was converted into a garrison for the King's soldiers.
He was not in the battle of Bothwell bridge, but was
met, hastening towards it, by some English dragoons,
engaged in the pursuit already commenced. As he re-
fused to surrender, he was instantly slain — Wilson's
History of Bothwell Rising — Life of Gordon ofEarl-
stoun,in Scottish Worthies — Wodrow's History, vol.
ii. The son, Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun, I sup-
alludes to tlie same story, wliiclx is rendered probable by tlie clia-
racter of Hamilton, the insurgent general. — Guild's MSS
Ckeichton's Memoirs, p. 61.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 235
pose to be the hero of the ballad. He was not a Ca-
meronian, but of the more moderate class of Presbyte-
rians, whose sole object was freedom of conscience, and
relief from the oppressive laws ag-ainst non-conformists.
He joined the insurgents shortly after the skirmish at
Loudon Hill. He appears to have been active in for-
warding- the supplication sent to the Duke of Monmouth.
After the battle, he escaped discovery, by flying- into a
house at Hamilton, belonging- to one of his tenants, and
disg-uising himself in female attire. His person was
proscribed, and his estate of Earlstoun was bestowed
upon Colonel Theophilus Ogilthorpe, by the crown,
first in security for L.5000, and afterwards in perpe-
tuity.— FouNTAiNHALL, p. 390. The same author
mentions a person tried at the Circuit Court, July 10,
1683, solely for holding- intercourse with Earlstoun,
an intercommuned (proscribed) rebel. As he had been
in Holland after the battle of Bothwell, he was proba-
bly an accessory to the scheme of invasion, which the
unfortunate Earl of Argyle was then meditating. He
was apprehended upon his return to Scotland, tried,
convicted of treason, and condemned to die ; but his
fate was postponed by a letter from the King-, appoint-
ing him to be reprieved for a month, that he might, in
the interim, be tortured for the discovery of his accom-
plices. The council had the unusual spirit to remon-
strate against this illegal course of severity. On No-
vember 3, 1683, he received a farther respite, in hopes
he would make some fhscovery. When broug-ht to the
236 MINSTRELSY OF
bar, to be tortured, (for the King- had reiterated his com-
mands,) he, through fear, or distraction, roared like a
bull, and laid so stoutly about him, that the hangman
and his assistant could hardly master him. At last he
fell into a swoon, and, on his recovery, charged General
Dalzell, and Drummond, (violent Tories,) together with
the Duke of Hamilton, with being- the leaders of the
fanatics. It was generally thought that he affected this
extravagant behaviour to invalidate all that agony might
extort from him concerning his real accomplices. He
was sent, first, to Edinburgh Castle, and, afterwards, to
a prison upon the Bass island; although the Privy
Council more than once deliberated upon appointing-
his immediate death. On 22d August, 1684, Earlstoun
was sent for from the Bass, and ordered for execution,
4th November, 1684. He endeavoured to prevent his
doom by escape ; but was discovered and taken, after
he had gained the roof of the prison. The Council
deliberated, whether, in consideration of this attempt,
he was not liable to instant execution. Finally, how-
ever, they were satisfied to imprison him in Blackness
Castle, 16th September, 1684, where he remained till
after the Revolution, when he was set at liberty, and
his doom of forfeiture reversed by act of Parliament.
— See FouNTAiNHALL, vol. i. pp. 238, 240, 245, 250,
301, 302.
THE BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIGG.
VOCE.
PIANO
FORTE.
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Vol. n.
Kothwtll Brigg.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIDGE.
" O, BiLLiE, billie, bonny billie,
Will ye go to the wood wi' me ?
We'll ca' our horse hame masterless,
An' g-ar them trow slain men are we." —
" O no, O no ! " says Earlstoim,
" For that's the thing that mauna be ;
For I am sworn to Bothwell Hill,
Where I maun either gae or die." —
So Earlstoun rose in the morning-,
An' mounted l)y the break o' day ;
An' he has joined our Scottish lads,
As they v/ere marching out the way.
" Now, farewell, father, and farewell, mother,
And fare ye v/eel, my sisters three ;
An' fare ye weel, my Earlstoun,
For thee again I'll never see I" —
238 MINSTRELSY OF
So they're awa' to Bothwell Hill,
An' waly^ they rode bonnily !
When the Duke o' Monmouth saw them comin',
He went to view their company.
" Ye're welcome, lads," the Monmouth said,
" Ye're welcome, brave Scots lads, to me ;
And sae are you, brave Earlstoun.
The foremost o' your company !
" But yield your weapons ane an a' ;
O yield your weapons, lads, to me ;
For g-in ye'll yield your weapons up,
Ye'se a' g-ae hame to your country." —
Out then spak a Lennox lad.
And waly but he spoke bonnily I
•^^ I winna yield my weapons up.
To you nor nae man that I see.'' —
Then he set up the flag- o' red.
A' set about wi' bonny blue ;"
* JVaJi/ f — an interjection.
2 Blue was the favourite colour of tlie Covenanters ; hence the
vulgar phrase of a true blue "VMiig. Spalding informs us, that when
the first army of Covenanters entered Aberdeen, few or none
" wanted a blue ribband ; the Lord Gordon, and some others of
the IMarquis (of Huntly's) family had a ribband, when they were
dwelling in the town, of a red flesh colour, which they wore irt
their hats, and called it the roi/al-ribband, as a sign of their lova
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 239
" Since ye'll no cease, and be at peace,
See that ye stand by ither true." —
They stell'd^ their cannons on the height.
And showr'd their shot down in the howe ; -
An' beat our Scots lads even down.
Thick they lay slain on every knowe.^
As e'er you saw the rain down fa',
Or yet the arrow frae the bow, —
and loyalty to tlie King. In despite and derision thereof, tliis
blue ribband was worn, and called tbe Covenanters' ribba?id, by
the baill soldiers of the army, who would not hear of the royal rib-
band, such was their pride and malice." — Vol. i. p. 123. After
the departure of this first army, the town was occupied by the ba-
rons of the royal party, till they were once more expelled by the
Covenanters, who plundered the burgh and country adjacent ; " no
fowl, cock, or hen, left unkilled, and the haill house-dogs, messens,
[{. e. lap-dogs,] and whelps within Aberdeen, killed upon the
streets; so that neither hound, messen, nor other dog, was left
alive that they could see. The reason was tliis, — when the first
army came here, ilk captain and soldier had a blue ribband about liis
craig [i. e. neck] ; in despite and derision whereof, when they
removed from Aberdeen, some women of Aberdeen, as was al-
leged, knit blue ribbands about their messens' craigs, whereat their
soldiers took oiFence, and kiUed all their dogs fortius very cause."
—P. 160.
I have seen one of the ancient banners of the Covenanters : it
was divided into four compartments, inscribed with the words, -^
Christ — Covenant — King — Kingdom. Similar standards are
mentioned in Spalding's curious and minute narrative, vol. ii. ^jn.
182, 245. '
^ /SfcZZ'J— Planted— 8 ^^ozfe— HoUow ? A'woeie— Knoll.
240 MINSTRELSY OF
Sae our Scottish lads fell even down,
An' they lay slain on every knowe.
" O hold your hand," then Monmouth cry'd,
" Gie quarters to yon men for me ! " —
But wicked Claver'se swore an oath.
His Cornet's death revenged sud be.
*' O hold your hand," then Monmouth cry'd,
" If onything- you'll do for me ;
Hold up your hand, you cursed Graeme,^
Else a rebel to our King- ye'll be." —
Then wicked Claver'se turn'd about,
I wot an ang-ry man was he ;
And he has lifted up his hat,
And cry'd, " God bless his Majesty 1" —
Than he's awa' to London town.
Aye e'en as fast as he can dree ;
Fause witnesses he has wi' him ta'en,
And ta'en Monmouth's head frae his body.
Alang- the brae, beyond the brig-,
Mony brave man lies cauld and still ;
But lang- we'll mind, and sair we'll rue,
The bloody battle of Bothwell Hill.
' See Note A, p. 241.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 241
APPENDIX.
Note A.
Hold lip your hand, you cursed Grame — P. 240, v. 3.
It is very extraordinary, that, in April, ]685, Claverhouse was
left out of the new commission of Privy Council, as being too fa-
vourable to tlie fanatics. The pretence was his having married
into the presbyterian family of Lord Dundonald. An act of Council
was also passed, regidating the payment of quarters, which is stated
by Fountainhall to have been done in odium of Claverhouse, and in
order to excite complaints against him. This charge, so inconsis-
tent with the nature and conduct of Claverhouse, seems to have
been the fruit of a quarrel betwixt him and the Lord High Treasurer.
Fountainhall, vol. i. p. 360.
That Claverhouse was most unworthily accused of mitigating the
persecution of the Covenanters, will appear from the following simple,
but very affecting narrative, extracted from one of the little publi-
cations which appeared soon after the Revolution, while the facts
were fresh in the memory of the sufferers. The imitation of the
scriptural style produces, in passages of these works, an effect not
unlike what we feel in reading the beautiful book of Ruth. It is
taken from the Life of Mr Alexander Peden,^ printed about 1 720.
1 The enthusiasm of this personag-e, and of his followers, invested him,
as has been already noticed, with prophetic powers : but hardly any of
the stories told of him exceeds that sort of gloomy conjecture of misfor-
tune, which the^precarious situation of his sect so greatly fostered. The
following passage relates to the battle of Bothwell bridge : " That dis-
VOL. II. Q
242 MINSTRELSY OF
" In tlie begmnlng of May 1685, lie came to the house of Jolin
Brown and ISirrion Weir, wliom he married before lie went to Ire-
land, where he stayed all night ; and in the morning, when he took
farewell, he came out of the door, saying to himseh, ' Poor woman,
a fearful morning,' twice over. ' A dark misty morning !' The next
morning, between five and six hours, the said John Brown having
perfornJ'ed the worsliip of God in Ills family, was going, with a spade
in his hand, to make ready some peat ground : the mist being very
dark, he knew not until cruel and bloody Claverhouse compassed him
with three troops of horse, brought him to his house, and there ex-
amined him ; who, though he was a man of a stammering speech, yet
answered him distinctly and solidly ; which made Claverhouse to ex-
amine those whom he had taken to be his guides through the mulrs, if
ever they heard him preach ? They answered, ' No, no, he was never
■a preacher.' He said, ' If he has never preached, meikle he has prayed
in his time ;' he said to John, ' Go to your prayers, for you shaU im-
mediately die ! ' When he was praying, Claverhouse interrupted him
three times ; one time, that he stopt him, he was pleading that the
Lord would spare a remnant, and not make a full end in the day of
mal day, 2-2d of June, 1679, of Bothwell-bridge. when the Lord's people
fell and fled before the enemy, he was forty miles distant, near the Bor-
der, and kept himself retired imtil the middle of the day, Avhen some
friends said to him, ' Sir, the people are waiting for sermon.' He an-
swered, ' Let them go to their prayers : for me, I neither can nor will
preach any this day, for our friends are fallen and fled before the enemy,
at Hamilton, and they are hacking and hewing them down, and their
blood is running like water.' " The feats of Peden are thus commemo-
rated by Fountainhall, 27th of March, 16S5 :-" News came to the Privy
Council, that about one hundred men, well armed and appointed, had
left Ireland, because of a search there for such malcontents, and landed
in the west of Scotland, and joined with the wild fanatics. The Coun-
cil, finding that they disappointed their forces by skulking from hole to
hole, were of opinion, it were better to let them gather into a body, and
draw to a head, and so they would get them altogether in a snare.
They had one Mr Peden, a minister with them, and one Isaac, who com-
manded them. They had frighted most part of all the country ministers,
so that they durst not stay at their churches, but retired to Edinburgh,
or to garrison towns ; and it was sad to see whole shires destitute ot
preaching, except in burghs. Wherever they came they plundered arms,
and particularly at my Lord Dumfries's house."-rouNTAiNHALL, vol. i.
p. 659.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 243
bis anger. Claverb.ouse said, ' I give you time to pray, and ye are be-
gun to preacb ;' be turned about upon his knees, and said, ' Sir, you
know neitber the nature of preacliing or praying, that calls this preach-
ing.' Then continued without confusion. When ended, Claverhouse
said, ' Take goodnight of your wife and children.' His wife, standing
by with her child in her arms that she bad brought forth to him,
and another child of his first wife's, be came to her, and said, ' Now,
Marion, the day is come that I told you would come, when I spake
first to you of marrying me.' She said, ' Indeed, John, I can will-
ingly part with you.' — ' Then,' he said, ' this is all I desire, I have
110 more to do but die.' He kissed bis wife and bairns, and wished
purchased and promised blessings to be multiplied upon them, and
his blessing. Claverhouse ordered six soldiers to shoot him ; the
most part of the bullets came upon his head, which scattered his
brains upon the ground. Claverhouse said to his wife, ' WTbat
tliinkest thou of thy husband, now, woman?' She said, ' I thought gver
much of him, and now as much as ever.' He said, ' It were but justice
to lay thee beside him.' She said, ' If ye were permitted, I doubt not
but your crueltie would go that length ; but bow wiU ye make an-
swer for this morning's work ? ' He said, ' To man I can be an-
swerable ; and for God, I will take him in my own hand.' Cla-
verhouse mounted his horse, and marched, and left her with the
corpse of her dead husband lying there ; she set the bairn on the
ground, and gathered his brains, and tied up his head, and straighted
liis body, and covered him in her plaid, and sat dowTi, and wept
over him. It being a very desart place, where never victual grew,
and far from neighbours, it was some time before any friends came
to her ; the first that came was a very fit hand, that old singular
Christian woman, in the Cummer head, named Elizabeth jMenzies,
three miles distant, who had been tried with the violent death of her
husband at Pentland, afterwards of two worthy sons, Thomas Weir,
who was kiUed at Drumclog, and David Steel, who was suddenly shot
afterwards when taken. The said Marion Weir, sitting upon her
husband's grave, told me, that before that, she could see no blood
but she was in danger to faint ; and yet she was helped to be a wit-
ness to all this, without either fainting or confusion, except when
the shots were let off her eyes dazzled. His corpse were buried at
244 MINSTRELSY OF
the end of his house, where he was slain, with this inscription on
his grave-stone : —
• In earth's cold bed, the dusty part here lies.
Of one who did the earth as dust despise !
Here, in this place, from earth he took departure ;
Now he has got the garland of the martyrs.'
*' This murder was committed betwixt six and seven in the
morning • Mr Peden was about ten or eleven miles distant, having
been in the fields all night : he came to the house betwixt seven
and ei-ht, and desired to call in the family, that he might pray
amongtt them ; when praying, he said, ' Lord, when wilt thou
aven-e Brown's blood? Oh, let Brown's blood be precious m thy
si-htl and hasten the day when thou wilt avenge it, with Came-
ron's CargiU's, and many others of our martyrs' names ; and oh 1
for that dav, when the Lord would avenge all their bloods !' When
ended, John I^Iuirhead enquired what he meant by Brown's blood !
He said twice over, ' What do I mean? Claverhouse has been at
the PreshiU this morning, and has cruelly murdered John Brown ;
hi« corpse are lying at the end of his house, and his poor wife sit-
ting weeping by his corpse, and not a soul to speak a word com-
fortablv to her.'"
While we read this dismal story, we must remember Bro™ s
situation was that of an avowed and determined rebel, liable as such
to militarv execution; so that the atrocity was more that of the
times than of Claverhouse. That general's gallant adherence to his
anaster, the misguided James VIL, and his glorious death on the
field of victory, at Killicrankie, have tended to preserve and gild
his memory He is still remembered in the Higlilands as the most
successful leader of their clans. An ancient gentleman who had
borne arms for the cause of Stuart in 1715, told the Editor, that
^hen the armies met on the field of battle at Sheriff-mmr, a veteran
chief (I tliink he named Gordon of Glenbucket,) covered with
scars', came up to the Earl of Mar, and earnestly pressed him to
order the Highlanders to charge, before the regular army of Argyle
had completely formed their hne, and at a moment when the rapid
and furious onset of the clans might have thrown them into otal
disorder. Mar repeatedly answered, it was not yet time j till the
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 240
cliieftain turned from him in disdain and despair, and, stamping
with rage, exclaimed aloud, " O for one hour of Dundee !" ^
Claverhouse's sword (a straight cut-and-thrust blade) is in the
possession of Lord Woodhouselee. In Pennyculck house is pre-
served the buff-coat, which he wore at the battle of KilUcrankie.
The fatal shot-hole is under the arm-pit, so that the ball must have
been received while his arm was raised to direct the pursuit. How-
ever he came by his charm oi proof , he certainly had not worn the
garment usually supposed to confer that privilege, and which was
called the icaistcoat of proof , or of necessity. It was thus made :
* ' On Christmas dai, at night, a thread must be sponne of flax, by
a little virgin girle, in the name of the divell ; and it must be by
her woven, and also wrought with the needle. In the breast, or
fore part thereof, must be made, with needle-work, two heads ; on
the head, at the right side, must be a hat and a long beard ; the
left head must have on a crown, and it must be so horrible that it
maie resemble Belzebub ; and on each side of the wastcote must be
made a crosse." — Scott's, Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 231.
It would be now no difficult matter to bring down our popular
poetry, connected with liistory, to the year 1745. But almost all
the party ballads of that period have been already printed and ably
illustrated by Mr Ritson.
\^0 for one hour of Wallace wight,
Or well-skilled Bruce, to role the fight, ^^c.
Narmion.l
END OF HISTORICAL BALLADS.
MINSTRELSY
OF THE
SCOTTISH BORDEE.
PART SECOND.
3^£fmantic ^SalTatf^.
[ 249 ]
SCOTTISH MUSIC.
AN ODE.
BY J. LEY DEN.
TO lANTHE.
Again, sweet siren ! breathe again
That deep, pathetic, powerful strain.
Whose melting- tones, of tender woe,
Fall soft as evening's summer dew,
That bathes the pinks and harebells blue,
Which in the yales of Teviot blow.
Such was the song that soothed to rest.
Far in the green isle of the west,^
The Celtic warrior's parted shade ;
Such are the lonely sounds that sweep
O'er the blue bosom of the deep,
Where shipwreck'd mariners are laid.
Ah ! sure, as Hindu legends ^ tell.
When music's tones the bosom swell,
' The FlatJiinnis, or Celtic paradise.
- The effect of music is explained by the Hindus, as recalling to
250 MINSTRELSY OF
The scenes of former life return ;
Ere, sunk beneath the morning- star,
We left our parent climes afar.
Immured in mortal forms to mourn.
Or if; as ancient sages ween,
Departed spirits, half unseen.
Can mingle with the mortal throng ;
'Tis when from heart to heart we roll
The deep-toned music of the soul.
That warbles in our Scottish song.
I hear, I hear, with awful dread,
The plaintive music of the dead !
They leave the amber fields of day :
Soft as the cadence of the wave.
That murmurs round the mermaid's grave,
They mingle in the magic lay.
Sweet siren, breathe the powerful strain !
LocJiroyans Damsel ^ sails the main ;
The crystal tower enchanted see !
" Now break," she cries, " ye fairy charms ! "•
As round she sails with fond alarms,
" Now break, and set my true love free !"
our memory the airs of paradise, heard in a state of pre-existence.
^— Vide Sacontala.
^ The Lass of Locliroyan. — Post,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 251
Lord Barnard is to greenwood gone,
Where fair Gil Morrice sits alone,
And careless combs liis yellow hair :
Ah ! mourn the youth, untimely slain !
The meanest of Lord Barnard's train
The hunter's mangled head must bear.
Or, change these notes of deep despair.
For love's more soothing tender air ;
Sing, how, beneath the greenwood tree,
Broicn Adams ^ love maintain'd her truth,
Nor would resign the exiled youth
For any knight the fair could see.
And sing the HaiuJc of pinion grey,~
To southern climes who wing'd his way,
For he could speak as well as ily ;
Her brethren how the fair beguiled,
And on her Scottish lover smiled.
As slow she raised her languid eye.
Fair was her cheek's carnation glow,
Like red blood on a wreath of snow ;
Like evening's dewy star her eye ;
White as the sea-mew's downy breast,
Borne on the surge's foamy crest,
Her graceful bosom heaved the sigh.
^ See tlie ballad, entitled, Sroum Adam^
^ See the Gay Goss-Huick,
252 MINSTRELSY OF
In youth's first morn, alert and g-av,
Ere rolling years had pass'd away,
Remember'd like a morning- dream,
I heard these dulcet measures float,
In many a liquid winding- note,
Along- the banks of Teviot's stream.
Sweet sounds ! that oft have soothed to rest
The sorrows of my guileless breast.
And charm'd away mine infant tears :
Fond memory shall your strains repeat,
Like distant echoes, doubly sweet,
That in the wild the traveller hears.
And thus, the exiled Scotian maid.
By fond alluring- love betray'd
To visit Syria's date-crown'd shore,
In plaintive strains, that soothed despair,
Did " Bothwell's banks that bloom so fair," ^
And scenes of early youth, deplore.
^ " So fell it out of late years, ttat an English gentleman, tra-
velling in Palestine, not far from Jerusalem, as lie passed through
a country town, he heard, by chance, a woman sitting at her door,
dandling her child, to sing, Bothicell hank, thou hloomest fair. The
gentleman hereat wondered, and forthwith, in English, saluted the
woman, who joyfully answered him ; and said she was right glad
there to see a gentleman of our isle : and told him that she was a
Scottish woman, and came first from Scotland to Venice, and from
Venice thither, where her fortune was to be the wife of an officer
under the Turk ; who, being at that instant absent, and very soon
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 253
Soft siren, whose enchanting- strain
Floats wildly round my raptured brain,
I bid your pleasing haunts adieu !
Yet, fabling- fancy oft shall lead
My footsteps to the silver Tweed,
Through scenes that I no more must yiew.^
to return, slie entreated tlie gentleman to stay tliere until Ms return.
The which he chd ; and she, for country sake, to show herself the
more kind and bountiful unto him, told her husband, at his home-
coming, that the gentleman was her kinsman ; whereupon her hus-
band entertained him very kindly ; and, at his departure, gave him
tlivers things of good value." — Veestigan's Restitution of De-
cayed Intelligence. Chap, of the Slrnames of our Antient Fami-
lies. Antwerp, 1605.
^ [Dr Leyden was, when he wrote these verses, en the eve of
departing for India — where he died Ed.]
254 MINSTRELSY OF
INTRODUCTION
TALE OF TAMLANE.
FAIRIES OF POPULAR SUPERSTITION.^
" Of airy elves, by moonlight shadows seen,
The silver token, and the circled green."— Pope.
In a work avowedly dedicated to the preservation of
the poetry and traditions of the " olden time," it would
be unpardonable to omit this opportunity of making-
some observations upon so interesting- an article of the
popular creed, as that concerning the Elves, or Fairies.
The general idea of spirits, of a limited power, and
subordinate nature, dwelling among the woods and
^ [The reader will do well to compare this early essay with Sir
Walter Scott's fourth Letter on Demonology, 1830, where he will
iind the Author's opinions on several points considerably modified ; as
also the Preface and Notes to Grimji's Hans-nnd-Jdnder Miir-
chen ; and an Essay on Popular Superstitions, by Mr Southey, iu
the 37th Number of the Quarterly Review. — Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 2jJ
mountains, is perhaps common to all nations. But
the intermixture of tribes, of languages, and religion,
whichhas occurred in Europe, renders it difficult to trace
the origin of the names which have heen bestowed upon
such spirits, and the primary ideas which were enter-
tained concerning- their manners and habits.
The word elf, which seems to have been the orig-i-
nal name of the beings afterwards denominated fairies,
is of Gothic origin, and probably sig'nilied, simply, a
spirit of a lower order. Thus, the Saxons had not only
dim-elfen, herg-eJfen, and munt-elfen, spirits of the
dovyns, hills, and mountains ; but ahojhid-elfen, ivudu-
elfen, sae-elfen, and ivcetey^-elfen ; spirits of the fields,
of the woods, of the sea, and of the waters.^ In Low
German, the same latitude of expression occurs ; for
night-hags are termed aluinnen and allien, which is
sometimes Latinized elu(^. But the prototype of the
English elf is to be sought chiefly in the herg-elfen, or
ditergar, of the Scandinavians. From the most early
of the Icelandic Sagas, as well as from the Edda itself,
we learn the belief of the northern nations in a race of
dwarfish spirits, inhaljiting the rocky mountains, and
approaching, in some respects, to the human nature.
' [The writer of tlie learned Preface to V/arton's History of Eng-
lish Poetry, (Edit. 1824,) doubts whether " tliis catalogue oi JSl-
frics ever obtained currency among the people." He says, this
is at least rendered doubtful, by its exact correspondence with the
Grecian names of Dryades, &c. Elf, according to this writer,
originally means running water — whence the Elbe; and here he
notices a curious coincidence with vu/^-tp?] and lijr)ipha. — Ed.]
256 MINSTRELSY OF
Their attributes, amongst wliich we recognise the fea-
tures of the modern fairy, were, supernatural wisdom
and prescience, and skill in the mechanical arts, espe-
cially in the fabrication of arms. They are farther de-
scribed, as capricious, yindictive, and easily irritated.
The story of the elfin sword Tyrfing^ may be the most
pleasing illustration of this position. Suafurlami, a
Scandinavian monarch, returning from hunting, bewil-
dered himself among the mountains. About sunset
he beheld a large rock, and two dwarfs sitting before
the mouth of a cavern. The king drew his sword, and
intercepted their retreat, by springing betwixt them and
their recess, and imposed upon them the following con-
dition of safety : — -that they should make for him a
falchion, with a baldric and scabbard of pure gold, and
a blade which should divide stones and iron as a gar-
ment, and which should render the wielder ever victo-
rious in battle. The elves complied with the requisi-
tion, and Suafurlami pursued his way home. Keturn-
ing at the time appointed, the dwarfs delivered to him
the famous sword Tyrfing ; then, standing in the en-
trance of the cavern, spoke thus : " This sword, O
king, shall destroy a man every time it is brandished,
but it shall perform three atrocious deeds, and it shall
be thy bane." The king rushed forward with the
charmed sword, and buried both its edges in the rock ;
but the dwarfs escaped into their recesses.^ This en-
' Perhaps in this, and similar tales, w-e may reco^ise sometHng
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 257
chanted sword emitted rays like the sun, dazzling- all
ag-ainst whom it was brandished ; it divided steel like
water, and was never unsheathed without slaying a
man. — Hervarar Saga, p. 9. Similar to this was the
enchanted sword Skojfnung, wdiich was taken by a
pirate out of the tomb of a Norwegian monarch. Many
such tales are narrated in the Sagas ; but the most
distinct account of the duergar, or elves, and their
attributes, is to be found in a preface of Torfseus to the
history of Hrolf Kraka, who cites a dissertation by
Einer Gudmund, a learned native of Iceland. " I am
lirmly of opinion," says the Icelander, " that these
beings are creatures of God, consisting-, like human
beings, of a body and rational soul ; that they are of
different sexes, and capable of producing- children, and
subject to all human affections, as sleeping and waking-,
laughing and crying, poverty and wealth ; and that
they possess cattle, and other effects, and are obnoxious
to death, like other mortals." He proceeds to state,
that the females of this race are capable of procreating-
of real history. That the Fins, or ancient natives of Scandinavia,
were driven into the mountains, by the invasion of Odin and his
Asiatics, is sufficiently probable ; and there is reason to believe,
that the aboriginal inhabitants understood, better than the intru-
ders, how to manufacture the produce of their own mines. It is
therefore possible, that, in process of time, the oppressed Fins may
have been transformed into the supernatural duergar. A slmilar
transformatlon has taken place among the vulgar in Scotland,
regarding the Picts or Peghs, to whom they ascribe various super-
natural attributes.
VOL. 11. R
258 MINSTRELSY OF
with mankind ; and gives an account of one who bore
a child to an inhabitant of Iceland, for whom she claim-
ed the privilege of baptism ; depositing the infant for
that purpose, at the gate of the churchyard, together
with a goblet of gold, as an offering. — Historia Hrolfi
Krakcje, a Toef.eo.
Similar to the traditions of the Icelanders, are those
current among the Laplanders of Finland, concerning
a subterranean people, gifted with supernatural quali-
ties, and inhabiting the recesses of the earth. Resem-
bling men in their general appearance, the manner of
their existence and their habits of life, they far excel
the miserable Laplanders in perfection of nature, feli-
city of situation, and skill in mechanical arts. From
■all these advantages, however, after the partial conver-
sion of the Laplanders, the subterranean people have
derived no farther credit, than to be confounded with
the devils and magicians of the dark ages of Christi-
anity ; a degradation which, as will shortly be demon-
strated, has been also suffered by the harmless fairies
of Albion, and, indeed, by the whole host of deities of
learned Greece and mighty Rome. The ancient opi-
nions are yet so firmly rooted, that the Laps of Finland,
at this day, boast of an intercourse with these beings,
in banquets, dances, and magical ceremonies, and even
in more intimate commerce of gallantry. They talk,
with triumph, of the feasts which they have shared in
the elfin caverns, where wine and tobacco, the produc-
tions of the Fairy region, went round in abundance,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 259
and whence the mortal guest, after receiving- the kind-
est treatment, and the most sahitary counsel, has been
conducted to his tent under an escort of his supernatu-
ral entertainers Jessens, de Lapponibus,
The superstitions of the islands of Feroe, concerning
their Froddenskemen, or under-ground people, are de-
rived from the duevgar of Scandinavia. These beings
are supposed to inhabit the interior recesses of moun-
tains, which they enter by invisible passages. Like the
Fairies, they are supposed to steal human beings, " It
happened," says Debes, p. 354, " a good while since,
when the burghers of Bergen had the commerce of
Feroe, that there was a man in Servaade, called Jonas
Soideman, who was kept by spirits in a mountain during
the space of seven years, and at length came out ; but
lived afterwards in great distress and fear, lest they
should again take him away ; wherefore people were
obliged to watch him in the nio-ht." The same author
mentions another young man who had been carried
away, and, after his return, was removed a second time
upon the eve of his marriage. He returned in a short
time, and related, that the spirit that had carried him
away was in the shape of a most beautiful woman, who
pressed him to forsake his bride, and remain with her ;
urging her own superior beauty, and splendid appear-
ance. He added, that he saw the men who were em-
ployed to search for him, and heard them call ; but that
they could not see him, nor could he answer them, till
upon his determined refusal to listen to the spirit's per-
260 MINSTRELSY OF
suasions, the spell ceased to operate. The kidney-
shaped West Indian bean, which is sometimes driven
upon the shore of the Feroes, is termed by the natives,
" the Fairies kidney"
\ In these traditions of the Gothic and Finnish tribes,
we may recognise, with certainty, the rudiments of
elfin superstition ; but we must look to various other
causes for the modifications which it has undergone.
These are to be sought, first, in the traditions of the
East ; 2d, in the wreck and confusion of the Gothic
m\i:hology ; 3d, in the tales of chivalry ; 4th, in the
fables of classical antiquity ; 5th, in the influence of
the Christian religion ; 6th, and finally, in the creative
imagination of the I6th century. It may be proper to
notice the effect of these various causes, before stating
the popular belief of our own time, regarding the Fairies.
I. To the traditions of the East, the Fairies of Bri-
tain owe, I think, little more than the appellation, by
which they have been distinguished since the days of
the Crusade. The term " Fairy," occurs not only in
Chaucer, and in yet older English authors, but also, and
more frequently, in the Romance language ; from which
they seem to have adopted it. Ducange cites the fol-
lowing passage from Gul. Guiart, in Historia Fran-
cica, MS. '
" Pluslers parlent de Guenart,
Du Lou, de L'Asne, de Renart,
De Faeries et de Songes,
De pliautosmes et de mensonges."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 261
The Lay le Frain, enumerating- the subjects of the
Breton Lays, informs us expressly,
!Many ther beth. oi faery.
By some etymologists of that learned class, who not
only know whence words come, but also whither they
are g'oing-, the term Fairy, or Faiirie, is derived from
Faii, which is ag-ain derived from Nymplia. It is more
probable the term is of Oriental origin, and is derived
from the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic.
In Persic, the term Perl expresses a species of imagi-
nary being which resembles the Fairy in some of its
qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic
fancy. This superstition must have been known to the
Arabs, among- whom the Persian tales, or romances,
even as early as the time of Mahomet, were so popu-
lar, that it required the most terrible denunciations of
that legislator to proscribe them. Now, in the enun-
ciation of the Arabs, the term P<?>^i would sound jp«irj/,
the letter p not occurring in the alphabet of that
nation ; and, as the chief intercourse of the early cru-
saders was with the Arabs, or Saracens, it is probable
they would adopt the term according to their pronun-
ciation. Neither will it be considered as an objection
to this opinion, that in Hesychius, the Ionian term,
Phereas or Pheres, denotes the satyrs of classical anti-
quity, if the number of words of Oriental origin in that
lexicographer be recollected.^ Of the Persian Peris,
' [Faerie was a general name for illusion; a sense in wliicli it
is alwai/s (?) used by Chaucer. As an appellation for the elfin race,
262 MINSTRELSY OF
Ousely, in his Persian Miscelkmies, has described
some characteristic traits, with all the luxuriance of a
fancy impregnated with the Oriental associations of
ideas. However vaguely their nature and appearance
are described, they are uniformly represented as gentle,
amiable females, to whose character beneficence and
beauty are essential. None of them are mischievous
or mahgnant ; none of them are deformed or diminu-
tive, like the Gothic fairy. Though they correspond
in beauty with our ideas of angels, their employments
are dissimilar ; and, as they have no place in heaven,
their abode is diiferent. Neither do they resemble those
intelligences, whom, on account of their wisdom, the
Platonists denominated demons ; nor do they corre-
spond either to the guardian Genii of the Romans, or
the celestial virgins of paradise, whom the Arabs de-
nominate Houri. But the Peris hover in the balmy
clouds, live in the colours of the rainbow, and, as the
exquisite purity of their nature rejects all nourishment
grosser than the odours of flowers, they subsist by in-
haling the fragrance of the jessamine and rose. Though
their existence is not commensurate with the bonds of
it is certainly of late date ; and perliaps a mere corruption — a name
given to the agent from Ms acts. It is certainly not of northern ori-
gin. Some of the earliest French tales oi faerie, acknowledge a
Breton source : may not the name itself be Celtic ? The Ionic
Pheres, of Hesychius, which has been mentioned as a synonym
"with the Persian Peri, is but a different aspiration of the Attic ^»^,
(German, thier,) and which, whether applied to Centaurs or Satyrs,
could only have been given to mark their affinity with the animal
lace Preface to Warton, 1824, p. 44 Ed.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
263
human life, they are not exempted from the common
fate of mortals.
With the Peris, in Persian mytholog-y, are contrasted
the Dives, a race of being-s, who differ from them in
sex, appearance, and disposition. These are represented
as of the male sex, cruel, wicked, and of the most hide-
ous aspect ; or, as they are described by Mr Finch,
" with ugly shapes, long- horns, staring eyes, shaggy
hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, with such hor-
rible difformity and deformity, that I wonder the poor
women are not frightened therewith." Though they
live very long, their lives are limited, and they are
obnoxious to the blows of a human foe. From the ma-
lignancy of their nature, they not only wage war with
mankind, but persecute the Peris with unremitting
ferocity.
Such are the brilliant and fanciful colours with which
the imaginations of the Persian poets have depicted the
charming race of the Peris ; and, if we consider the ro-
mantic gallantry of the knights of chivalry, and of the
crusaders, it will not appear improbable, that their charms
might occasionally fascinate the fervid imagination of an
amorous troubadour. But, further ; the intercourse of
France and Italy with the Moors of Spain, and the
prevalence of the Arabic, as the language of science in
the dark ages, facilitated the introduction of their my-
thology among the nations of the West. Hence, the ro-
mances of France, of Spain, and of Italy, unite in de-
scribing the Fairy as an inferior spirit, in a beautiful
264 MINSTRELSY OF
female form, possessing- many of the amiable qualities
of the Eastern Peri. Nay, it seems sufficiently clear,
that the romancers borrowed from the Arabs, not mere-
ly the general idea concerning- those spirits, but even the
names of individuals among them. The Peri 3Iergian
Sanou, (see Herhelot ap. Peri,) celebrated in the an-
cient Persian poetry, figures in the European romances,
under the various names of Mourgue La Faye, sister
to King Arthur ; Urgande La Deconnue, protectress
of Amadis De Gaul ; and the Fata Morgana of Boi-
ardo and Ariosto. The description of these nymphs,
by the troubadours and minstrels, is in no respect in-
ferior to those of the Peris. In the tale of Sir Latin -
fal, in Way's Fahliaux, as well as in that of Sir
Gruelan, in the same interesting collection, the reader
will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, adorned
with all the splendour of Eastern description. The
fairy Melusina, also, who married Guy de Lusignan,
Count of Poictou, under condition that he should never
attempt to intrude upon her privacy, was of this latter
class. She bore the Count many children, and erected
for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their
harmony was uninterrupted, until the prying- husband
broke the conditions of their union, by concealing- him-
self, to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath.
Hardly had 3Ielusina discovered the indiscreet intru-
der, than, transforming- herself into a dragon, she de-
parted with a loud yell of lamentation, and was never
again visible to mortal eyes; although, even in the
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 265
days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the pro-
tectress of her descendants, and was heard waihng-, as
she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle
of Lusignan, the night before it was demolished. For
the full story, the reader may consult the BihliotJieqiie
des Romans}
Geryase of Tilbury, (pp. 895 and 989?) assures us,
that, in his days, the lovers of the Fadse, or Fairies,
were numerous ; and describes the rules of their inter-
course with as much accuracy, as if he had himself been
engaged in sach an affair. Sir Dayid Lindsay also in-
forms us, that a leopard is the proper armorial bearing-
of those who spring from such intercourse, because that
beast is generated by adultery of the pard and lioness.
He adds, that Merlin, the prophet, was the first who
adopted this cognizance, because he was " borne of faarie
in adultre, and right sua the first Duk of Guyenne
was born of ^fee ; and, therefoir, the arms of Guyenne
^ UpoQ tills, or some similar tradition, was founded tlie notion,
■nliich the inveteracy of national prejudice so easily difi'used in Scot-
land, tliat tlie ancestor of the English monarchs, GeoftVey Planta-
genet, had actually married a demon. Bowmaker, in order to ex-
plain the cruelty and ambition of Edward I., dedicates a chapter to
show " hovr the Kings of England are descended from the devil,
by the mother's side." — Fordux, Chron. lib. 9, cap. 6. The
lord of a certain castle, called Espervel, was unfortunate enough to
have a wife of the same class. Having observed, for several years,
tliat she always left the chapel before the mass was concluded, the
baron, in a fit of obstinacy or curiosity, ordered his guard to detain
her by force ; of which the conseqvience was, that, unable to sup-
port the elevation of the host, she retreated through the air, carrying
with her one side of the chapel, and several of the congregation.
266 MINSTRELSY OF
are a leopard." — 3IS. on Heraldry, Advocates' Li-
brary, w. 4j 13. While, however, the Fairy of warmer
climes was thus held up as an object of desire and of
affection, those of Britain, and more especially those
of Scotland, were far from being- so fortunate ; but re-
taining the unamiable qualities, and diminutive size of
the Gothic elves, they only exchanged that term for
the more popular appellation of Fairies.
II. Indeed so singularly unlucky were the British
Fairies, that, as has already been hinted, amid the wreck
of the Gothic mythology, consequent upon the intro-
duction of Christianity, they seem to have preserved,
with difficulty, their own distinct characteristics, while,
at the same time, they engrossed the mischievous at-
tributes of several other classes of subordinate spirits,
acknowledged by the nations of the north. The ab-
straction of children, for example, the well-known
practice of the modern Fairy, seems, by the ancient
Gothic nations, to have rather been ascribed to a spe-
cies of nightmare, or hag, than to the herg-elfen, or
duergar. In the ancient legend of >S'^ Margaret, of
which there is a Saxo-Norman copy in Hickes The-
saurus Linguar. Septen. and one, more modern, in
the Auchinleck MSS., that lady encounters a fiend,
Tvdiose profession it was, among other malicious tricks,
to injure new- born children and their mothers ; a prac-
tice afterwards imputed to the Fairies. Gervase of
Tilbury, in the Otia Imperialia, mentions certain hags,
or Lamice, who entered into houses in the night-time,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 267
to oppress the inhabitants while asleep, injure their
persons and property, and carry off their children. He
likewise mentions the Dracce^ a sort of water spirits,
who inveigle women and children into the recesses
which they inhabit, beneath lakes and rivers, by float-
ing- past them, on the surface of the water, in the shape
of gold rings or cups. The women, thus seized, are
employed as nurses, and, after seven years, are permit-
ted to revisit earth. Gervase mentions one woman, in
particular, who had been allured by observing a wooden
dish, or cup, float by her, while washing clothes in a
river. Being seized as soon as she reached the depths^
she was conducted into one of these subterranean re-
cesses, which she described as very magnificent, and
employed as nurse to one of the brood of the hag who
had allured her. During her residence in this capacity,
having accidentally touched one of her eyes with an oint-
ment of serpent's grease, she perceived, at her return
to the world, that she had acquired the faculty of seeing
the DraccE, when they intermingle themselves with
men. Of this power, she was, however, deprived by
the touch of her ghostly mistress, whom she had one
day incautiously addressed. It is a curious fact, that
this story, in almost all its parts, is current in both
the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, with no
other variation than the substitution of Fairies for
DraccB, and the cavern of a hill for that of a river. ^
^ Indeed, many of tlie vulgar account it extremely dangerous to
toucli any tiling whicli they may happen to find, witliout saining
268
MINSTRELSY OF
These water fiends are thus characterised by Heywood,
in the Hierarchie —
" Spirits, that have o'er water government,
Are to mankind alike malevolent ;
They trouble seas, flouds, rivers, brookes, and wels,
Meres, lakes, and love to enhabit watry cells ;
Hence noisome and pestiferous vapours raise ;
Besides, they men encounter divers ways.
At wreckes some present are ; another sort.
Ready to cramp their joints that swim for sport ;
One kind of these the Italians futcc name,
Fee the French, we sihijh, and the same ;
Others ichite ni/tnphs, and those that have them seen,
Night ladies some, of which Habundia queen."
Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels, p. 507.
The following- Frisian superstition, related by Schott,
in his Physica Curiosa, p. 362, on the authority of
(blessing) it, the snares of the Enemy being notorious and well at-
tested. A poor woman of Teviotdale, having been fortunate
enough, as she thought herself, to lind a wooden beetle, at the very
time when she needed such an implement, seized it without pro-
nouncing the proper blessing, and, carrying it home, laid it above
her bed, to be ready for employment in the morning. At mid-
night, the window of her cottage opened, and a loud voice was
heard, calling upon some one within, by a strange and uncouth
name which I have forgotten. The terrified cottager ejaculated a
prayer, which, we may suppose, ensured her personal safety ; whiL-
the enchanted implement of housewifery, tumbling from the bed-
stead, departed by the window with no small noise and precipita-
tion. In a humorous fugitive tract, the late Dr Jolinson is intro-
duced as disputing the authenticity of an apparition, merely because
the spirit assumed the shape of a tea-pot, and of a shoulder of mut-
ton. No doubt, a case so much in point as that we have now
quoted, would have removed his increduhty.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 269
Cornelius a Kempen, coincides more accurately with
the popular opinions concerning- the Fairies, than even
the dracce of Gervase, or the water spirits of Thomas
Heywood. — " In the time of the Emperor Lotharius,
in 830," savs he, " many spectres infested Friesland,
particularly the white nymphs of the ancients, which
the moderns denominate ivitte iviven, who inhabited a
subterraneous cavern, formed in a wonderful manner,
without human art, on the top of a lofty mountain.
These were accustomed to surprise benighted travellers,
shepherds watching- their herds and flocks, and women
nev/ly delivered, with their children ; and convey them
into their caverns, from which subterranean murmurs,
the cries of children, the groans and lamentations of
men, and sometimes imperfect words, and all kinds of
musical sounds, were heard to proceed." The same
superstition is detailed by Bekker, in his World Be-
ii'itclid, p. 196, of the English translation. As the
<lifterent classes of spirits were gradually confounded,
the abstraction of children seems to have been chiefly
ascribed to the elves, or Fairies ; yet not so entirely
as to exclude hags and witches from the occasional ex-
ertion of their ancient privilege. In Germany, the
same confusion of classes has not taken place. In the
]:>eautiful ballads of the Erl King, the Water King^
and the Mer-Maid, we still recognise the ancient tra-
ditions of the Goths concerning the ivald-eh-en, and the
drac(E.
A similar superstition, concerning abstraction by de-
1
270 MINSTRELSY OF
mons, seems, in the time of Gervase of Tilbury, to have
pervaded the greatest part of Europe. " In Catalonia,"
says the author, " there is a lofty mountain, named Ca-
yag-um, at the foot of which runs a river with golden
sands, in the vicinity of which there are likewise mines
of silver. This mountain is steep, and almost inacces-
sible. On its top, which is always covered with ice
and snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if
a stone be thrown, a tempest suddenly rises ; and near
this lake, though invisible to men, is the porch of the
palace of demons. In a town adjacent to this moun-
tain, named Junchera, lived one Peter de Cabinam.
Being one day teazed with the fretfulness of his young
daughter, he, in his impatience, suddenly wished that
the devil might take her ; when she was immediately
borne away by the spirits. About seven years after-
wards, an inhabitant of the same city, passing by the
mountain, met a man, who complained bitterly of the bur-
den he was constantly forced to bear. Upon enquiring
the cause of his complaining, as he did not seem to carry
any load, the man related, that he had been unwarily
devoted to the spirits by an execration, and that they
now employed him constantly as a vehicle of burden.
As a proof of his assertion, he added that the daughter
of his fellow-citizen was detained by the spirits, but
that they were willing to restore her, if her father
would come and demand her on the mountain. Peter
de Cabinam, on being informed of this, ascended the
mountain to the lake, and, in the name of God, de-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 271
manded his daughter ; when a tall, thin, withered
figure, with wandering eyes, and almost bereft of un-
derstanding, was wafted to him in a blast of wind.
After some time, the person, who had been emjDloyed
as the vehicle of the spirits, also returned, when he re-
lated where the palace of the spirits was situated ; but
added, that none were permitted to enter but those who
devoted themselves entirely to the spirits ; those who
had been rashly committed to the devil by others, being
only permitted, during their probation, to enter the
porch." It may be proper to observe, that the supersti-
tious idea, concerning the lake on the top of the moun-
tain, is common to almost every high hill in Scotland.
Wells, or pits, on the top of high hills, were likewise
supposed to lead to the subterranean habitations of the
Fairies. Thus Gervase relates, (p. 975,) "that he
was informed the swineherd of William Peverell, an
English baron, having lost a brood-sow, descended
through a deep abyss, in the middle of an ancient
ruinous castle, situated on the top of a hill, called
Bech, in search of it. Though a violent wind com-
monly issued from this pit, he found it calm ; and pur-
sued his way, till he arrived at a subterraneous region,
pleasant and cultivated, with reapers cutting down corn,
though the snow remained on the surface of the ground
above. Among the ears of corn he discovered his
sow, and was permitted to ascend with her, and the
pigs which she had farrowed." Though the author
seems to think that the inhabitants of this cave might
272 MINSTRELSY OF
l)e Antipodes, yet, as many such stories are related of
tlie Fairies, it is probable that this narration is of the
same kind. Of a similar nature seems to be another
superstition, mentioned by the same author, concerning-
the ring-ing of invisible bells, at the hour of one, in a
field in the vicinity of Carleol, which, as he relates,
was denominated Laiklhraine, or Lai hi hrait. From
all these tales, we may perhaps be justified in suppos-
ing that the faculties and habits ascribed to the Fairies,
by the superstition of latter days, comprehend several,
originally attributed to other classes of inferior spirits.
III. The notions, arising from the spirit of chivalry,
combined to add to the Fairies certain qualities, less
atrocious indeed, but equally formidable, with those
which they derived from the last-mentioned source, and
alike inconsistent with the jjowersof the dnergar, whom
we may term their primitive prototype. From an early
period, the daring temper of the northern tribes urged
them to defy even the supernatural powers. In the
days of Caesar, the Suevi were described, by their coun-
trymen, as a people, with whom the immortal gods
dared not venture to contend. At a later period, the
historians of Scandinavia paint their heroes and cham-
pions, not as bending at the altar of their deities, but
wandering into remote forests and caverns, descending-
into the recesses of the tomb, and extorting- boons,
alike from gods and demons, by dint of the sword and
battle-axe. I will not detain the reader by quoting in-
stances in which heaven is thus described as having
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 273
been literally attempted by storm. He may consult
Saxo, Olaus Wormius, Olaus Magnus, Torfseus, Bar-
tholin, and other northern antiquaries. Vv^ith such
ideas of superior beings, the Normans, Saxons, and
other Gothic tribes, brought their ardent courage to
ferment yet more highly in the genial cUmes of the
south, and under the blaze of romantic chivalry. Hence,
during the dark ages, the inyisible world was modelled
after the material : and the saints, to the protection of
whom the knights-errant were accustomed to recom-
mend themselves, were accoutred like preu^ chevaliers^
by the ardent imaginations of their votaries. With
such ideas concerning the inhabitants of the celestial
regions, we ought not to be surprised to find the infe-
rior spirits, of a more dubious nature and origin, equip-
ped in the same disguise. Gervase of Tilbury (Oiia
Imperial, ap. Scrip, rer. Bnmsvic, vol. i. p. 797)
relates the following popular story concerning a Fairy
Knight. " Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited
a nolile family in the vicinity of Y/andiebury, in the
bishopric of Ely. Among other stories related in the
social circle of his friends, who, according to custom,
amused each other by repeating ancient tales and
traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unat-
tended, entered an adjacent plain by moonlight, and
challenged an adversary to appear, he would be immedi-
ately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight.
Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out,
attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to remain
VOL. II. s
274 MINSTRELSY OF
without the limits of the plain, which was surrounded
bj an ancient intrenchment. On repeating the chal-
leng-e, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom
he quickly unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed.
During this operation, his ghostly opponent sprung up,
and, darting his spear, like a javelin, at Osbert, wound-
ed him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with
the horse, which he committed to the care of his ser-
vants. The horse was of a sable colour, as well as his
whole accoutrements, and apparently of great beauty
and vigour. He remained with his keeper till cock-
crowing, when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared,
spurned the ground, and vanished. On disarming him-
self, Osl^ert perceived that he was wounded, and that
one of his steel boots was full of blood. Gervase adds,
tliat as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened
afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he en-
countered the spirit."^ Less fortunate was the gallant
* The unfortunate Cliatterton was not, probably, acquainted with
Gervase of Tilbury ; yet he seems to allude, in the Battle of Has-
tings, to some modification of Sir Osbert's adventure : —
•' So u'ho they be that ouphant fairies strike.
Their souls shall wander to King Offa's dike."
The intrenchment, wliich served as lists for the combatants, is
said by Gervase to have been the work of the Pagan invaders of
Britain. In the metrical romance of Arthour and Merlin, we
have also an account of Wandlesbury being occupied by the Sara-
cens, i. e. the Saxons ; for all Pagans were Saracens with the ro-
mancers. I presume the place to have been Wodnesbury, in Wilt-
shire, situated on the remarkable mound, called Wandsdike, which
is obviously a Saxon work Gough's Camden's Britannia, pp.
87-95.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. J/ J
Bohemian knight, who, traveUing- by night with a
single companion, came in sight of a fairy host, arrayed
under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances
of his friend, the knight pricked forward to break a
lance with a champion who advanced from the ranks,
apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the
Bohemian overthrown, horse and man, by his aerial
adversary ; and returning to the spot next morning, he
found the mangled corpse of the knight and steed
Hierarcliie of Blessed Angels, p. 554.
To the same current of warlike ideas, we may safely
attribute the long- train of military processions which
the Fairies are supposed occasionally to exhibit. The
elves, indeed, seem in this point to be identified with
the aerial host, termed, during- the middle ages, the
Milites Herlikini, or Herleurini, celebrated by Pet.
Biesensis, and termed, in the life of St Thomas of
Canterbury, the Familia HelUquinii. The chief of
this band was originally a gallant knight and warrior ;
but, having spent his whole possessions in the ser-
vice of the emperor, and being- rewarded with scorn,
and abandoned to subordinate oppression, he became
desperate, and, with his sons and followers, formed a
band of robbers. After committing many ravages, and
defeating all the forces sent against him, Hellequin,
with his whole troop, fell in a bloody engagement with
the imperial host. His former good life was supposed
to save him from utter reprolmtion ; but he and his
followers were condemned after death, to a state of
2/6 MINSTRELSY OF
wandering-, which should endure till the last day. Re-
taining- their military habits, they were usually seen in
the act of justing together, or in similar warlike em-
ployments. See the ancient French Romance of Rich-
ard sans Peur. Similar to this was the NacJit Lager,
or midnight camp, which seemed nightly to beleaguer
the walls of Prague,
" With ghastly faces throng-'d, and fiery arms,"
but which disappeared upon recitation of the magical
words, Vezele, VezeU, ho ! ho ! ho ! — For similar
delusions, see Delrius, pp. 294, 295.
The martial spirit of our ancestors led them to defy
these aerial warriors ; and it is still currently believed,
that he who has courage to rush upon a fairy festival,
and snatch from them their drinking- cup or horn, shall
£nd it prove to him a cornucopia of good fortune, if he
can bear it in safety across a running- stream. Such a
horn is said to have been presented to Henry L, by a
lord of Colchester. — Gervas Tilb. p. 980. A goblet
is still carefully preserved in Edenhall, Cumberland,
which is supposed to have been seized at a banquet of
the elves, by one of the ancient family of Musgrave ;
or, as others say, by one of their domestics, in the man-
ner above described. The Fairy train vanished, crying:
aloud,
" If tills glass do break or fall.
Farewell the luck of Edenhall !"
The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 277
which it is mentioned in the burlesque ballad, com-
monly attributed to the Duke of Wharton, but ia
reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial compa-
nions. The duke, after taking a draught, had nearly
terminated " the luck of Edenhall," had not the butler
caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from his
grace's hands. I understand it is not now subjected
to such risks, but the lees of wine are still aj^parent at
the bottom.
" God prosper long from being broke,
The luck of Edenhall." — Parody on Chevy Chace.^
Some faint traces yet remain, on the Borders, of a.
conflict of a mysterious and terrible nature, between
mortals and the spirits of the wilds. The superstition
is incidentally alluded to by Jackson, at the beginning
of the 1 7th century. The fern seed, which is supposed
to become yisible only on St John's eve,^ and at the
^ [" Prsetorius informs us that the member of the German house
of Alveschleben received a ring from a Nixe, to which the future
fortunes of his line were to be attached. Antherpodemius Pluto-
nicus, i. p. 113. Another German family, the Ranzaus, held their
property by the tenure of a faery spindle." — Preface to Wartox,
1824, p. 52 Ed.]
2 " Ne'er be I found by thee unawed.
On that thrice-ballow'd eA'e abroad.
When g-oblins haunt, from fire and fen.
And wood and lake, the steps of men."
Collin's Ode to Fear,
The whole history of St John the Baptist was, by our ancestors,
accounted mysterious, and connected with their own superstitions.
The Fairy Queen was sometimes identified with Herodias. — Del-
2/8 MINSTRELSY OF
Tery moment when the Baptist was born, is held by
the vulg-ar to be under the special protection of the
Queen of Faery. But, as the seed was supposed to
have the quality of rendering the possessor invisible at
pleasure,^ and to be also of sovereig-n use in charms and
incantations, persons of courage, addicted to these mys-
terious arts, were wont to watch in solitude, to gather
it at the moment when it should become visible. The
particular charms, by which they fenced themselves
during- this vigil, are now unknown ; but it was reck-
oned a feat of no small danger, as the person underta-
king it was exposed to the most dreadful assaults from
spirits, who dreaded the effect of this powerful herb in
the hands of a cabalist. " Much discourse," says Richard
Bivot, "hath been about gathering of fern seed (which
is looked upon as a magical herb) on the night of Mid-
summer-eve ; and I remember I was told of one who
went to gather it, and the spirits whisk't by his ears
like bullets, and sometimes struck his hat, and other
parts of his body ; in fine, though he apprehended he
had gotten a quantity of it, and secured it in papers,
and a box besides, when he came home he found all
Kii Disqiiisitiones Magicce, pp. 168, 807. It is amusing to
observe with what gravity the learnedJesuit contends, that it is heresy
to heheve that this celebrated figurante {saltatricula) still leads
choral dances upon earth !
^ This is alluded to by Shakspeare, and other authors of his
time : —
•' We have the receipt of /trra seed j Ave walk invisible."
Jleiuy IF. Part lit. Act 2d, Sc.S.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 279
empty. But, most probably, this appointing- of times
and hours is of the devil's own institution, as well as
the fast, that, having once ensnared people to an obe-
dience to his rules, he may with more facility oblige
them to a stricter vassalag-e." — Pcmdt^monium, Lond.
1684, p. 217. Such were the shades, which the ori-
ginal superstition, concerning- the Fairies, received
from the chivalrous sentiments of the middle ag-es.
IV. An absurd belief in the fables of classical anti-
quity lent an additional feature to the character of the
woodland spirits of whom we treat. Greece and Rome
had not only assigned tutelary deities to each province
and city, but had peopled, with peculiar spirits, the
Seas, the Rivers, the Woods, and the Mountains. The
memory of the Pagan creed was not speedily eradicated,
in the extensive provinces through which it was once
universally received ; and, in many particulars, it con-
tinued long to mingle with, and influence, the original
superstitions of the Gothic nations. Hence, we find the
elves occasionally arrayed in the costume of Greece and
Rome, and the Fairy Queen and her attendants trans-
formed into Diana and her nymphs, and invested with
their attributes and appropriate insignia. — Delrius,
pp. 168, 807- According to the same author, the
Fairy Queen was also called Hahundia. Like Diana,
who, in one capacity, was denominated Hecate, the
goddess of enchantment, the Fairy Queen is identified,
i\\ popular tradition, with the Gyre-Carline, Gay
Carline, or mother witch, of the Scottish peasantry. Of
280
MINSTRELSY OF
this personag-e, as an individual, we have Ijiit few
notices. She is sometimes termed Nicnevin, and is
mentioned in the Comphynt of Scotland, hy Lindsay
in his Breme, ^. 225, edit. 1590, and in his Interludes,
apud Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 18. But
the traditionary accounts regarding her are too obscure
to admit of explanation. In the burlesque fragment
subjoined, which is copied from the Bannatyne MS.,
the Gyre-Carline is termed the Queen of Jowls, (Jo vis,
or perhaps Jews,) and is, with great consistency, mar-
ried to Mohammed.i
1 ((
n Tyberlus tyme, the trew imperatour,
Quhen Tynto hills fra skraiping of toun-henis was keipit,
Thair dwelt ane grit Gyre Carling in awld Betokis hour,
That levit upoun Christiane menis flesche, and rewheids unleipit
Thair wynit ane hir by, on the west syde, callit Blasour,
For luve of hir lauchane lippis, he walit and he weipit ;
He gadderit ane menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour ;
The Carling with ane yren club, quhen that Blasour sleipit^
Behind the heil scho hatt him sic ane blaw,
Quliil Blasour bled an quart
Off milk pottage inwart.
The Carling luche, and let a fart
North Berwik Law.
" The King of Fary than come, with elfis many ane,
And sett ane seke, and ane salt, with grit pensalHs of pryd ;
And all the doggis fi-a Dunbar wes thair to Dumblane,
With all the tykis of Tervey, come to thame that tyd ;
Thay quelle doune with thair gonnes mony grit stane,
The Carling schup her on ane sow, and is her gaitis gane,
Gruntying our the Greik sie, and durstna langer byd.
For bruldyng of bargane, and breiking of browis :
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 281
But chiefly in Italy were traced many dim characters
of ancient mythology, in the creed of tradition. Thus,
so lately as 1 536, Vulcan, with twenty of his Cyclops,
is stated to have presented himself suddenly to a
Spanish merchant, travelling- in the night throug-h the
forests of Sicily ; an apparition which was followed by a
dreadful eruption of Mount yEtna. — Hierarchie of
Blessed Angels, p. 504. Of this singular mixture, the
reader will find a curious specimen in the following- tale,
wherein the Venus of antiquity assumes the manners
of one of the Fays, or Fatse, of romance. " In the
year 1058, a young man of noble birth had been mar-
ried at Rome, and, during- the period of the nuptial
feast, having gone with his companions to play at ball,
he 23ut his marriage-ring on the finger of a broken sta-
The Carling now for dispyte
Is mareit with INIaliomyte,
And will the doggis interdyte,
For scho is quene of Jowls.
" Sensyne the cockis of Crawmound crew nevir at day
For dule of that devlUisch deme wes with Mahoun mareit.
And the henis of Hadlngtoun sensyne wald not lay,
For this wild wibroun wich them widlit sa and wareit ;
And the same North Berwik Law, as I heir wyvis say.
This Carling, with a fals cast, wald away careit ;
For to luck on quha sa lykis, na langer scho tareit ;
All thic langour for love before tymes fell,
Lang or Betok was born,
Sho bred of ane accorne ;
The lalf of the story to morne,
To you I sail telle."
282 MINSTRELSY OF
tiie of Venus in the area, to remain while he was en-
gaged in the recreation. Desisting from the exercise,
he found the finger, on which he had put his ring,
contracted firmly against the palm, and attempted in
Tain either to break it or to disengage his ring. He
concealed the circumstance from his companions, and
returned at night with a servant, when he found the
iinger extended, and his ring gone. He dissembled
the loss, and returned to his wife ; but, whenever he
attempted to embrace her, he found himself prevented
by something dark and dense, which was tangible, though
not visible, interposing between them : and he heard a
Toice saying, ' Embrace me ! for I am Venus, whom
this day you wedded, and I will not restore your ring.'
As this was constantly repeated, he consulted his rela-
tions, who had recourse to Palumbus, a priest skilled
in necromancy. He directed the young man to go, at
a certain hour of night, to a spot among the ruins of
ancient Rome, where four roads met, and wait silently
till he saw a company pass by, and then, without utter-
ing a word, to dehver a letter, which he gave him, to a
majestic being, who rode in a chariot, after the rest of the
company. The young man did as he was directed ; and
saw a company of all ages, sexes, and ranks, on horse and
on foot, some joyful and others sad, pass along ; among
whom he distinguished a woman in a meretricious dress,
who, from the tenuity of her garments, seemed almost
naked. She rode on a mule ; her long hair, which
flowed over her shoulders, was bound with a golden
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 283
fillet ; and in her hand was a golden rod, with which
she directed her mule. In the close of the procession,
a tall majestic figure appeared in a chariot, adorned with
emeralds and pearls, who fiercely asked the young- man,
'What he did there?' He presented the letter in
silence, which the demon dared not refuse. As soon as
he had read, lifting- up his hands to heaven, he exclaim-
ed, ' Almighty God ! how long wilt thou endure the
iniquities of the sorcerer Palumbus!' and immediately
despatched some of his attendants, who, with much dif-
ficulty, extorted the ring- from Venus, and restored it to
its owner, whose infernal banns were thus dissolved." —
FoRDUNi Scotichronicon, vol. i. p. 407? cura Good-
all.
But it is rather in the classical character of an infer-
nal Deity, that the Elfin queen may be considered, than
as Hecate, the patroness of magic ; for not only in
the romance-writers, but even in Chaucer, are the fairies
identified with the ancient inhabitants of the classical
hell. Thus Chaucer, in his 3Iarcliand''s Tale, men-
tions
' ' Pluto tliat is king of fayrie — and
Proserpine and all her fayrie."
In the Golden Terge of Dunbar, the same phrase-
ology is adopted : Thus,
" Thair was Pluto that elricke incubus
In cloke of grene, his court usit in sable."
Even so late as 1602, in Harsenet's Declaration of
284 MINSTRELSY OF
Popish Imposture, p. 57, Mercury is called Prince of
the Fairies.
But Chaucer, and those poets who have adopted his
phraseolog-y, have only followed the romance-writers ;
for the same substitution occurs in the romance of Or-
feo and Heurodisy in which the story of Orpheus and
Eurydice is transformed into a beautiful romance tale
of faery, and the Gothic mythology engrafted on the
fables of Greece. Heurodis is represented as wife of
OrfeOy and Queen of Winchester, the ancient name of
which city the romancer, with unparalleled ingenuity,
■discovers to have been Traciens, or Thrace. The mo-
narch, her husband, had a singular genealogy : —
" His fader was comen of King Pluto,
And liis moder of King Juno ;
That sum time were as goddes y-liolde,
For aventours that thai dede and tolde."
Reposing, unwarily, at noon, under the shade of an ymp
tree,^ Heurodis dreams that she is accosted by the King
of Fairies,
" With an hundred knights and mo,
And damisels an hundred also,
Al on sno we -white stedes ;
As white as milk were her wedes ;
Y no seigh never yete bifore.
So fair creatours y-core :
^ Ywjp tree According to the general acceptation, this only sig-
nifies a grafted tree ; whether it should be here understood to mean
a tree consecrated to the imps, or fahies, is left with the reader.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 285
Tlie kinge hadde a croun on hede,
It nas of silver, no of golde red,
Ac it was of a precious ston :
As bright as the sonne it schon."
The King of Fairies, who had obtained power over
the queen, perhaps from her sleeping- at noon in his do-
main, orders her, under the penalty of being- torn to
pieces, to await him to-morrow under the ymp tree, and
accompany him to Fairy-Land. She relates her dream
to her husband, who resolves to accompany her, and
attempt her rescue : —
' ' A morwe the under tide is come,
And Orfeo hath his armes y-nome.
And wele ten hundred knights with him,
Ich y-armed stout and grim ;
And with the quen wentea he,
Right upon that ympe tre.
Thai made scheltrom in iche aside.
And sayd thai wold there abide.
And dye ther everichon,
Er the quen schuld fram hem gon :
Ac yete amiddes hem ful right.
The quen was oway y-twight.
With Fairi forth y-nome,
J\Ien wizt never wher she was become."
After this fatal catastrophe, Orfeo, distracted for the
loss of his queen, abandons his throne, and, with his
harp, retires into a wilderness, where he subjects him-
self to every kind of austerity, and attracts the wild
beasts by the pathetic melody of his harp. His state
of desolation is poetically described : — •
286 MINSTRELSY OF
" He that werd the fowe and giiis,
And on bed the purpur biis,
Now on hard hethe he llth,
With leves and gresse he him wrilh :
He that had castells and tours,
Rivers, forests, frith with flowers,
Now, thei it commence to snewe and freze,
This king mot make his bed in mesc ;
He that had y-had knightes of priis,
Bifor him knelaud and leuedis.
Now seth he no thing that him Hketh,
Bot wild wormes bi him striketh :
He that had y-had plente
Of mete and drinke, of ich deynte.
Now may he al daye digge and wrote,
Er he find his fiUe of rote,
Jii somer he liveth bi wilde fruit.
And verien bot gode lite.
In winter may he nothing find,
Bot rotes, grasses, and the riude.
His here of his herd blac and rowe,
To his girdel stede was growe ;
His harp, whereon was al his gle,
He hidde in ane holwe tre :
And, when the weder was clere and bright,
He toke his harpe to him wel right,
And harped at his owen will.
Into al the wode the soun gan shill.
That al the wild bestes that ther beth
For joie abouten him thai teth ;
And al the foules that there wer.
Come and sete on ich a brere,
To here his harping a fine,
So miche melody was therein."
THE SCOTTISH BOUDEK. 237
At last lie discovers, that lie is not the sole inhabi-
tant of this desert ; for
" He might se him besides,
Oft in hot umlertides,
The King of Fairi, with his rout,
Com to hunt him al about,
With dim cri and bloweing.
And houndes also with him berking :
Ac no best thai no nome.
No never he nist whider thai bl come.
And other while he might hem se
As a gret ost bi him te,
Wei atourned ten hundred knightes,
Ich y-armed to his rightes.
Of cuntenaunce stout and fers,
With mani desplaid baners ;
And ich his sword y-drawe hold,
Ac never he nist whider thai wold.
And otherwliile he seighe other thing ;
Knightis and leuedis com dauuceiug.
In queynt atire gisely,
Queyete pas and softlie :
Tabours and trumpes gede hem bi.
And al maner menstraci
And on a day he seighe him biside,
Soxti leuedis on hors ride,
Gentil and jolif as brid on ris;
Nought o man amonges hem ther nis ;
And ich a faucoun on bond here.
And riden on hauken bi o river.
Of game thai found wel gode haunt,
Maulardes, hayroun, and cormoraunt ;
The foules of the water ariseth,
Ich faucoun hem wele devisetb,
288 MINSTRELSY OF
Icii faucoim his pray slough,
That seize Orfeo and lough.
* Par fay, ' quoth he, ' there is fair game !
Hider Ichil bi Godes name,
Ich was y won swich work to se : '
He aros, and thider gan te ;
To a leuedi hi was y-come,
Bihelde, and hath wel under nome.
And seth, bi all thing, that is
His owhen quen, dam Heurodis ;
Gern hi biheld her, and sche him eke,
Ac nouther to other a word no speke :
For messais that sche on him seighe.
That had been so riche and so heighe.
The tears fel out of her eighe ;
The other leuedis this y-seighe.
And mated her oway to ride,
Sche most with him no longer oblde.
* Alias ! ' quoth he, ' nowe is mi woe,
"Whi nil deth now me slo !
Alias ! to long last mi liif,
When y no dare nought with mi wif,
Is^or hye to me o word speke ;
Alias whi nil miin hert breke !
Par fay,' quoth he, ' tide what betide,
Whider so this leuedis ride.
The selve way Ichil streche ;
Of liif, no dethe, me no reche.' "
In consequence, therefore, of this discoyery, Orfeo
pursues the hawking- damsels, among- whom he has de-
scried his lost queen. They enter a rock, the king-
continues the pursuit, and arrives at Fairy-Land, of
which the following- very poetical description is given :
" In at roche the leuedis rideth.
And he after and nought abideth :
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 289
When he was in the roche y-go,
Wele thre mile other mo,
He com into a fair cuntray,
As bright soonne somers day,
Smothe and plain and al grene,
Hill no dale nas none ysene.
Amiddle the lond a castel he seighe,
Rich and reale and wonder heighe ;
Al the utmast wal
Was cler and schine of crista! ;
An hundred tours ther were about,
Degiselich and bataild stout ;
The butrass come out of the diche,
Of rede gold y-arched riche ;
The bousour was anowed al.
Of ich maner deuers animal ;
Within ther wer wide wones
Al of precious stones,
The werss piler onto biholde,
Was al of burnist gold :
Al that lond was ever light,
For when it schuld be therk and night,
The riche stonnes light gonne.
Bright as doth at none the sonne :
No man may tel, no thenke in thought,
The riche werk that ther was rought.
" Than lie gan biholde about al,
And seighe ful liggeand with in the wal^
Of folk that wer thidder y-bvought.
And thought dede and nere nought ;
Sum stode with outen hadde ;
And some none armes nade ;
And sum tliurch the bodi hadde wounde ;
And sum lay wode y-bounde ;
And sum armed on hors sete ;
And sum astrangled as thai ete ;
VOL. II. T
290 MINSTRELSY OF
And sum war in water adreynt ;
And sum with fire al for schreynt ;
Wives tlier lay on childe bedde ;
Sum dede, and sume awedde ;
And wonder fele tlier lay besides,
Right as thai slepe her undertides ;
Eche was thus in this warld y-nome,
With fairi thidder y-come.^
Ther he seize his owhen wiif.
Dame Heurodis, liis liif liif,
Slepe under an ympe tree ;
Bi her clothes he knewe that it was sche.
" And when he had bihold tliis mervalis alle,
He went unto the hinges halle ;
Then seigh he ther a semly sight,
A tabernacle blisseful and bright ;
Ther in her maister king sete.
And her quen fair and swete ;
Her crounes, her clothes shine so bright,
That unnethe bihold he them might."
Orfeo and Heurodis, M. S.
Orfeo, as a minstrel, so charms the Fairy King with
the music of his harp, that he promises to g-rant him
whatever he should ask. He immediately demands his
lost Heurodis ; and, returning safely with her to Win-
chester, resumes his authority ; a catastrophe, less
pathetic indeed, but more pleasing, than that of the
classical story. The circumstances, mentioned in this
romantic legend, correspond very exactly with popular
tradition. Almost all the writers on demonology men-
^ It was perhaps from such description that Ariosto adopted his
idea of the Lunar Paradise, containing every thing that ou earth was
stolen or lost.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 291
tion, as a received opinion, that the power of the
demons is most predominant at noon and midniglito The
entrance to the Land of Faery is placed in the wilder-
ness ; a circumstance which coincides with a passage
in Lindsay's Complaint of the Papingo : —
"Bot sen my spreit mon from my bodye go,
I recommend it to the Quene of Fary,
Eternally into her court to tarry
In wilderness amaug the holtis hair."
Lindsay's Works, 1592, p. 222.
Chaucer also agrees, in this particular, with our ro-
mancer : —
" In his sadel he clombe anon,
And priked over stile and ston,
An Elfe Quene for to espie ;
Til he so long had riden and gone
That he found in a privie wone
The countree of Faerie.
" Wherein he soughte north and south.
And often spired with his mouth,
In many a foreste wilde ;
For in that countree nas ther non.
That to him dorst ride or gon,
Neither wife ne childe."
Rime of Sir Thopas.
V. Other two causes, deeply affecting- the supersti-
tion of which we treat, remain yet to be noticed. The
first is derived from the Christian religion, which
admits only of two classes of spirits, exclusive of the
souls of men — Angels, namely, and devils. This doc-
trine had a necessary tendency to abohsh the distinc-
292 MINSTRELSY OF
tion among subordinate spirits, which had been intro-
duced by the superstition of the Scandinavians. The
existence of the Fairies was readily admitted ; but as
they had no pretensions to the angehc character, they
were deemed to be of infernal origin. The union, also',
which had been formed betvvixt the elves and the Pagan
deities, was probably of disservice to the former ; since
every one knows that the whole synod of Olympus
were accounted demons.
The fulminations of the church were, therefore, early
directed against those, who consulted or consorted with
the Fairies ; and, according to the inquisitorial logic,
the innocuous choristers of Oberon and Titania were,
without remorse, confounded with the sable inhabitants
of the orthodox Gehennim ; while the rings, which
marked their revels, were assimilated to the blasted
sward on ^^'hich the witches held their infernal sabbath.
— Delrii Disq. Mag. p. 179. This transformation
early took place ; for, among the many crimes for which
the famous Joan of Arc was called upon to answer, it
was not the least heinous, that she had frequented the
Tree and Fountain, near Dompre, which formed the
rendezvous of the Fairies, and bore their name ; that
she had joined in the festive dance with the elves, who
haunted this charmed spot ; had accepted of their magi-
cal bouquets, and availed herself of their talismans, for
the deliverance of her country. — Vide Acta Judici-
aril contra Johannam D'Arceam, vuJgo vocatam
Johanne la Pucelle.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 293
The Reformation swept away many of the corrup-
tions of the church of Rome ; but the purifying- torrent
remained itseh"" somewhat tinctured by the superstitious
impurities of the soil over which it had passed. The
trials of sorcerers and witches, which disgrace our cri-
minal records, become even more frequent, after the
Reformation of the church ; as if human credulity, no
long-er amused by the miracles of Rome, had sought for
food in the traditionary records of popular superstition.
A Judaical observation of the precepts of the Old Tes-
tament, also characterised the Presbyterian reformers :
" Thou shah not suffer a ivitch to live,'' was a text,
which at once (as they conceived) authorized their be-
lief in sorcery, and sanctioned the penalty which they
denounced against it. The Fairies were, therefore, in
no better credit after the Reformation than before,
being- still regarded as actual demons, or something- very
little better. A famous divine. Doctor Jasper Broke-
man, teaches us, in his svstem of divinity, " that they
inhabit in those places, that are polluted with any cry-
ing- sin, as effusion of blood, or where unbelief or super-
stitione have gotten the upper hand." — Description of
Feroe. The Fairies being- on such bad terms with the
divines, those who pretended to intercourse with them
were without scruple punished as sorcerers ; and such
absurd charges are frequently stated as exag-gerations of
crimes, in themselves sufficiently heinous.
Such is the case in the trial of the noted Major
Weir, and his sister ; where the following- mummery
294 MINSTPxELSY OF
interlards a criminal indictment, too infamously flagi-
tious to be farther detailed : " 9tli April, 1670. Jean
Weir, indicted of sorceries, committed by her when she
lived and kept a school at Dalkeith ; that she took
employment from a woman, to speak in her behalf to
the Queen of Fahm, oneaning the devil; and that
another woman g-ave her a joiece of a tree, or root, the
next day, and did tell her, that as long* as she kept
the same, she should be able to do what she pleased ;
and that same woman, from whom she got the tree,
caused her spread a cloth before the door, and set her
foot upon it, and to repeat thrice, in the posture fore-
said, these words, '^ All her crosses and losses go
alongst the doors, ' which was truly a consulting with
the devil and an act of sorcery, &c. That after the
spirit, in the shape of a woman, who gave her the
piece of tree, had removed, she, addressing herself to
spinning, and having spun but a short time, found more
yarn upon the pirn than could possibly have come there
by good means." ^ — Books of Adjowmal.
^ It is observed in tlie record, tliat IMajor Weir, a man of the
most vicious character, was at the same time ambitious of appearing
eminently godly ; and used to frequent the beds of sick persons, to
assist them -nith his prayers. On such occasions, he put to his
mouth a long staiF, wliich he usually carried, and expressed liimself
"vvith uncommon energy and fluency, of which he was utterly inca-
pable when the inspiring rod was withdrawn. This circumstance,
the result, probably, of a trick or habit, appearing suspicious to the
judges, the staff of the Sorcerer was burned along with his person.
One hundred and thirty years have elapsed since his execution, yet
no one has, during that space, ventured to inhabit the house of this
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 295
Neither was the judg-ment of the Criminal Court of
Scotland less severe against another familiar of the
Fairies, whose supposed correspondence with the court
of Elfland seems to have constituted the sole crime for
which she was burned alive. Her name was Alison
Pearson, and she seems to have been a very noted per-
son. In a bitter satire against Adamson, Bishop of
St Andrews, he is accused of consulting- with sorcer-
ers, particularly with this very woman ; and an account
is given of her travelling- through Breadalbane in the
company of the Queen of Faery, and of her descrying-,
in the court of Elfland, many persons, who had been
supposed at rest in the peaceful grave.^ Among these
we find two remarkable personages, the secretary, young
Maitland of Lethington, and one of the old Lairds of
Buccleuch. The cause of their being- stationed in
celebrated criminal. 1803. [Tliis liouse is engraved as a frontis-
piece to Sir W. Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.
1830.]
^ " For oglit the kirk culd idm forbid,
He sped liim sone, and gat the thrid ;
Ane carling of the Quene of Phareis,
That ewlll win geir to elphyne careis ;
Through all Brade Abane scho has bene,
On horsbak on Hallow ewin ;
And ay in seiking certayne nightis,
As scho sayis with sur silly wychirs :
And names out nybours sex or sewin,
That we belevit had bene in heawin ;
Scho said scho saw thame weiU aneugh,
And speciallie gude au'd Balcleuch,
The secretar, and sundrie uther :
296 MINSTRELSY OF
Elflancl probably arose from the manner of their de-
cease ; which, being- uncommon and violent, caused the
vulg-ar to suppose they had been abstracted by the
Fairies. Lethington, as is generally supposed, died a
Roman death during- his imprisonment in Leith ; and
the Buccleuch, whom I Ijelieve to be here meant, was
slain in a nocturnal scufRe by the Kers, his hereditary
enemies. Besides, they were both attached to the cause
of Queen Mary, and to the ancient religion ; and were
thence, probably, considered as more immediately ob-
noxious to the assaults of the powers of darkness.^ The
Ane William Symsone, her mother brother,
"Wliom fra scho has resavit a i)uiko
For ony herb scho likes to luke ;
It will instruct hir how to tak it,
In saws and sillubs how to mak it ;
With stones that meikle mair can doe,
In leich craft, where scho lays them toe ;
A thowsand maladeis scho has mendit ;
Now being tane, and apprehendit,
Scho being in the bischops cure.
And kepit in his castle sure,
Without respect of worldlie glamer.
He past into the witches chalmer."
Scottish Poems of XVI. Century, Edin. 1801.
vol. ii. p. 320.
^ Buccleuch was a violent enemy to the English, by whom his
lands had been repeatedly plundered, (See Introduction, ante,) and
a great advocate for the marriage betwixt Mary and the Dauphin,
1549. According to John Knox, he had recourse even to threats,
in urging the Parhament to agree to the French match. " The
Laird of Balcleuch," says the Reformer, "a bloody man, with
many God's wounds, swore, they that would not consent should do
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 297
indictment of Alison Pearson notices her intercourse
with the Archbishop of St Andrews, and contains some
particulars, worthy of notice, reg-arding- the court of
Elfland. It runs thus : — " 28th May, 1586. Alison
Pearson, in Byrehill, convicted of witchcraft, and of
consulting- with evil spirits, in the form of one Mr
William Sympsoune, her cosin, who she affirmed was
a gritt scollar, and doctor of medicine, that healed her
of her diseases when she was twelve years of ag-e ; ha-
ving- lost the power of her syde, and having- a famili-
arite with him for divers years, dealing- with charms,
and abuseing- the common people by her arts of witch-
craft, thir divers yeares by-past.
" Item, For hanting- and repairing- with the g-ude
neig-hbours, and Queene of Eldand, thir divers years
by-past, as she had confest ; and that she had friends
in that court, which were of her own blude, who had
g-ude acquaintance of the Queene of Elfland, which
might have helped her ; but she was ->^•hiles weW., and
v/hiles ill, sometimes with them, and other times away
frae them ; and that she would be ni her bed haille and
feire, and would not wytt where she would be the morn ;
and that she savv' not the Queene this seven years, and
that she was seven years ill handled in the court of Elf-
knd ; that, however, she had g-ude friends there, and
that it was the g-ude neighbours that healed her, under
God ; and that she was comeing- and going- to St An-
drews to liaile folkes thir many years past.
" Item, Convict of the said act of witchcraft, in as
298 MINSTRELSY OF
far as she confest that the said Mr WilHam Sympsoune,
who was her guidsir sone, borne in Stirleing-, who was
the King's smith, who, when about eight years of age, was
taken away by ane Egyptian into Egypt ; whicli Egyp-
tian was a gyant, where he remained twelve years, and
then came home.
" Item, That she being in Grange Muir, with some
other folke, she, being sick, lay downe ; and, when
alone, there came a man to her, clad in green, who
said to her, if she would be faithful, he would do her
good ; but she, being feared, cried out, but naebodye
came to her ; so she said, if he came in God's name^
and for the gude of her saule, it was well ; but he gaid
away : that he appeared to her another time like a lus-
tie man, and many men and women with him ; that, at
seeing him, she signed herself and prayed, and past
with them, and saw them making merrie with pypes,
and gude cheir and wine, and that she was carried with
them ; and that when she telled any of these things^
she was sairlie tormentit by them ; and that the first
time she gaed with them, she gat a sair straike frae
one of them, which took all the poustie^ of her syde
frae her, and left ane ill-far'd mark on her syde»
" Item, That she saw the gude neighbours make
their sawes^ with panns and fyres, and that they ga-
thered the herbs before the sun was up, and they came
verie fearful sometimes to her, and flaide^ her very sair,
which made her cry, and threatened they would use her
^ Poustie — Power. — ^ Sawes — Salves. — ^ Flaide — Scared.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 299
worse than before ; and, at last, they took away the
power of her haile syde frae her, which made her lye
many weeks. Sometimes they wonld come and sitt by
her, and promise all that she should never want, if she
would be faithful, but if she would speak and telle of
them, they should murther her ; and that Mr William
Sympsoune is with them, who healed her, and telt
her all things ; that he is a young- man not six years
older than herself, and that he will appear to her before
the court comes ; that he told her he was taken away by
them, and he bid her sign herself that she be not taken
away, for the teind of them are tane to hell everie year.
" Item, That the said Pvir William told her what
herbs were fit to cure every disease, and how to use
them ; and particularlie tauld, that the Bishop of St
Andrews laboured under sindrie diseases, sic as the
ripples, trembling, fever, flux, &c., and bade her make
a sawe, and anoint several parts of his body therewith,
and gave directions for making a posset, which she
made and gave him."
For this idle story, the poor woman actually suffered
death. Yet, notwithstanding the fervent arguments
thus liberally used by the orthodox, the common people,
though they dreaded even to think or speak about the
Fairies, by no means unanimously acquiesced in the
doctrine which consigned them to eternal perdition.
The inhabitants of the Isle of Man call them the " good
people, and say they live in wilds and forests, and on
mountains, and shun great cities, because of the wicked-
300 MINSTRELSY OF
ness acted therein : all the houses are blessed where they
yisit, for they fly vice. A person would be thoiig-ht im-
pudently profane, who should suffer his family to go to
bed, without first having set a tul), or pail, full of clean
water, for those guests to bathe themselves in, which
the natives aver they constantly do, as soon as ever the
eyes of the family are closed, wherever they vouchsafe
to come." — Waldron's Works, p. 126. There are
some curious, and perhaps anomalous facts, concerning
the history of Fairies, in a sort of Cock-lane narrative,
contained in a letter from Moses Pitt to Dr Edward
Fowler, Lord Bishop of Gloucester, j^rinted at Lon-
don in 1696, and preserved in Morgan's Phosnix Bri-
tannicus, 4to, London, 1732.
Anne Jefferies was born in the parish of St Teatli,
in the county of Cornwall, in 1626. Being the daugh-
ter of a poor man, she resided as servant in the house
of the narrator's father, and waited upon the narrator
himself, in his childhood. As she was knitting stock-
ings in an arbour of the garden, " six small people, all
in green clothes," came suddenly over the garden-wall ;
at the sight of whom, being much frightened, she was
seized with convulsions, and continued so long sick, that
she became as a changeling, and was unable to walk.
During her sickness, she frequently exclaimed, " They
are just gone out of the window ! They are just gone
out of the window ! Do you not see them?" These
expressions, as she afterwards declared, related to their
disappearing. During the harvest, when every one
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 301
was employed, her mistress walked out ; and dread-
ing- that Anne, who was extremely weak and silly,
mig-ht injure herself, or the house, by the fire, with
some difficulty persuaded her to walk in the orchard
till her return. She accidentally hurt her leg-, and at
her return Anne cured it, by stroking it with her hand.
She appeared to be informed of every particular, and
asserted, that she had this information from the Fairies,
who had caused the misfortune. After this, she per-
formed numerous cures, but would never receive money
for them. From harvest time to Christmas, she was
fed by the Fairies, and eat no other victuals but theirs.
The narrator affirms, that looking one day through the
key -hole of the door of her chamber, he saw her eat-
ing ; and that she gave him a piece of bread, which was
the most delicious he ever tasted. The Fairies always
appeared to her in even numbers ; never less than two,
nor more than eight, at a time. She had always a suf-
licient stock of salves and medicines, and yet neither
made nor purchased any ; nor did she ever appear to be
in want of money. She, one day, gave a silver cup,
containing about a quart, to the daughter of her mis-
tress, a g-irl about four years old, to carry to her mother,
who refused to receive it. The narrator adds, that he
had seen her dancing in the orchard among- the trees,
and that she informed him she was then dancing- with
the Fairies. The report of the strange cures which she
performed, soon attracted the attention of both mi-
nisters and magistrates. The ministers endeavoured
302 MINSTRELSY OF
to persuade her, that the Fairies, by which she was
haunted, were evil spirits, and that she was under the
delusion of the devil. After they had left her, she was
visited by the Fairies, while in great perplexity, who
desired to cause those who termed them evil spirits, to
read that place of Scripture, First Epistle of John,
chap. iv. V. 1 . — Dearly heloved, believe not every spi-
rit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, &c.
Though Anne Jeiferies could not read, she produced
a Bible folded down at this passage. By the magis-
trates she was confined three months, without food, in
Bodman jail, and afterwards for some time in the house
of Justice Tregeagle. Before the constable appeared
to apprehend her, she was visited by the Fairies, who
informed her what was intended, and advised her to go
with him. When this account was given, on May 1,
1696, she was still alive; but refused to relate any
particulars of her connexion with the Fairies, or the
occasion on which they deserted her, lest she should
again fall under the cognizance of the magistrates.
Anne JefFeries' Fairies were not altogether singular
in maintaining their good character, in opposition to
the received opinion of the church. Aubrey and Lilly,
unquestionably judges in such matters, had a high
opinion of these beings, if we may judge from the
following succinct and businesslike memorandum of
a ghost-seer. "Anno 1670. Not far from Cirencester
was an apparition. Being demanded whether a good
spirit or a bad, returned no answer, but disappeared with
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 303
a curious perfume, and most melodious twang. M. W.
Lilly believes it was a fairie. So Propertius,
' Omnia finlerat ; tenues secessit in auras,
Mansit odor, possis scire fuisse Deam ! ' "
Aubrey's 3Iiscellanies, p. 80.
Webster gives an account of a person who cured
diseases by means of a white powder. " To this I shall
only add thus much, that the man was accused for
invoking and calling upon evil spirits, and was a very
simple and illiterate person to any man's judgment, and
had formerly been very poor, but had gotten some pretty
little means to maintain himself, his wife, and diverse
small children, by his cures done with his white pow-
der, of which there were sufficient proofs ; and the
judge asking him how he came by the powder, he told
a story to this effect : That one night, before day was
gone, as he was going home from his labour, being-
very sad and full of heavy thoughts, not knowing how
to get meat and drink for his wife and children, he met
a fair woman in fine clothes, who asked him why he
was so sad, and he told her that it was by reason of his
poverty ; to which she said, that if he would follow her
counsel, she would help him to that which would serve
to get him a good living ; to which he said he would
consent with all his heart, so it were not by unlawful
ways : She told him that it should not be by any such
ways, but by doing good, and curing of sick people ;
and so warning him strictly to meet her there the next
304 MINSTRELSY OF
nig-ht, at the same time, she departed from him, and
he went home. And the next night, at the time ap-
pointed, he duly waited, and she (according- to promise)
came, and told him that it was well that he came so
duly, otherwise he had missed that benefit that she in-
tended to do unto him, and so bade him follow her,
and not be afraid. Thereupon she led him to a little
hill, and she knocked three times, and the hill opened,
and they went in, and came to a fair hall, wherein was
a Queen sitting in great state, and many people about
her, and the gentlewoman that brought him presented
him to the Queen, and she said he was welcome, and
bid the gentlewoman give him some of the white pow-
der, and teach him how to use it, which she did, and
gave him a little wood box full of the white powder, and
bade him give two or three grains of it to any that were
sick, and it would heal them ; and so she brought him
forth of the hill, and so they parted. And, being- asked
by the judge, whether the place within the hill, which
he called a hall, were light or dark, he said, indifferent,
as it is with us in the twilight ; and being asked how
he got more powder, he said, when he wanted, he went
to that liill, and knocked three times, and said every
time, I am coming, I am coming, whereupon it opened,
and he, going in, was conducted by the aforesaid wo-
man to the Queen, and so had more powder given him.
This was the plain and simple story (however it may
be judged of) that he told before the judge, the whole
court, and the jury ; and there being no proofs, but
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 305
what cures he had done to yeiy many, the jury did
acquit him : and I remember the judge said, when all
the evidence was heard, that if he were to assign his
punishment, he should be whipped from thence to
Fairy-hall ; and did seem to judge it to be a delusion,
or an imposture." — Webster's Displaying of Sup-
posed Witchcy^aft, p. 301.
A rustic, also, whom Jackson taxed with mag-ical
practices, about 1620, obstinately denied that the g-ood
Ejng- of the Fairies had any connexion with the devil ;
and some of the Highland seers, even in our day, have
boasted of their intimacy with the elves, as an innocent
and advantag-eous connexion. One Macoan, in Appin,
the last person eminently gifted with the second sig-ht,
professed to my learned and excellent friend, Mr Ram-
say of Ochtertyre, that he owed his prophetic visions
to their intervention.
VI. There remains yet another cause to be noticed,
which seems to have induced a considerable alteration
into the popular creed of England, respecting- Fairies.
Many jDoets of the sixteenth century, and, above all,
our immortal Shakspeare, deserting- the hackneyed fic-
tions of Greece and Rome, sought for machinery in the
superstitions of their native country. " The fays,
w^hich nightly dance upon the wold,'"' were an interest-
ing subject, and the creative imagination of the bard,
improving upon the vulgar belief, assigned to them
many of those fanciful attributes and occupations, which
VOL. II. U
306
MINSTRELSY OF
posterity have since associated with the name of Fairy.
In such employments, as raising- the drooping- flower,
and arranging- the disordered chamber, the Fairies of
South Britain gradually lost the harsher character of
the dwarfs, or elves. Their choral dances were enli-
vened by the introduction of the merry g-oblin Pucky ^
for whose freakish pranks they exchanged their original
mischievous propensities. The Fairies of Shakspeare,
Drayton, and Mennis, therefore, at first exquisite fancy
portraits, may be considered as having finally operated
a change in the original which gave them birth. ^
While the fays of South Britain received such attrac-
tive and j^oetical em]>ellishments, those of Scotland,
' Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin, possesses the frolicsome qua-
lities of the French Lutin. For Ms full character, the reader is
referred to the Heliques of Aiicient Poctnj. The proper livery of
this silvan IMomus is to be found in an old play. " Enter Robiu
Goodfellow, in a suit of leather, close to his body, liis hands and
face coloured russet colour, with a flail." — Grim the Collier of
Croydon, A.ct 4, Scene 1. At other times, however, he is pre-
sented in the vernal livery of the elves, liis associates : —
" Tim. I hare made
Some speeches, sir, in verse, which have been spoke
By a green Rolin Good ft How, from Cheapside conduit.
To my father's company."
The City Match, Act 1, Scene 6.
^ The Fairyland and Fairies of Spenser have no connexion with
popular superstition, being only words used to denote a Utopian
scene of action, and imaginary and allegorical characters; and the
title of the " Fairy Queen" being probably suggested by the elfin
mistress of Chaucer's Sir Thopas. The steahng of the Red Cross
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 307
who possessed no such advantage, retained more of
their ancient and appropriate character. Perhaps, also,
the persecution which these silvan deities underwent,
at the instance of the stricter Presbyterian clergy, had
its usual effect, in hardening their dispositions, or at
least in rendering them more dreaded, by those among-
whom they dwelt. The face of the country, too, might
have some effect ; as we should naturally attribute a
less malicious disposition, and a less frightful appear-
ance, to the fays who glide by moonlight through the
oaks of Windsor, than to those who haunt the solitary
heaths and lofty mountains of the North. The fact at
least is certain ; and it has not escaped a late ingenious
traveller, that the character of the Scottish Fairy is
more harsh and terrific than that which is ascribed to
the elves of our sister kingdom — See Stoddart's
View of Scenery and Manners in Scotland.
Some curious particulars concerning- the Daoine
Shie, or 3Ien of Peace, for so the Highlanders call
Fairies, may be found in Dr Grahame's " Sketches of
Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of
Perthshire.^' They are, though not absolutely male-
volent, believed to be a peevish, repining, and envious
.Kniglit, Tvliile a child, Is tlie only incident in the poem which ap-
proaches to the popular character of the Fairy : —
" " A Fairy thee unweetingreft ;
There as thou >leptst in tender snadling- band.
And her base eltin brood there for thee left :
Such men do chang-eliiigs call, so chang-edby Fairies theft."
Book I. Canto \Q.
308 MINSTRELSY OF
race, who enjoy, in the subterranean recesses, a kind
of shadowy splendour. The Highlanders are at all
times unwilling to speak of them, but especially on
Friday, when their influence is supposed to be parti-
cularly extensive. As they are supposed to be invi-
sibly presentj they are at all times to be spoken of with
respect.
The Fairies of Scotland are represented as a dimi-
nutive race of beings, of a mixed, or rather dubious
nature, capricious in their dispositions, and mischievous
in their resentment. They inhabit the interior of green
hills, chiefly those of a conical form, in Gaelic termed
Sighan, on which they lead their dances by moon-
light ; impressing upon the surface the marks of circles,
which sometimes appear yellow and blasted, sometimes
of a deep green hue ; and within which it is dan-
gerous to sleep, or to be found after sunset. The
removal of those large portions of turf, which thunder-
bolts sometimes scoop out of the ground with singular
regularity, is also ascribed to their agency. Cattle,
which are suddenly seized with the cramp, or some
similar disorder, are said to be elf-shot ; and the appro-
ved cure is, to chafe the parts affected with a blue
bonnet, which, it may be readily believed, often restores
the circulation. The triangular flints, frequently found
in Scotland, with which the ancient inhabitants pro-
bably barbed their shafts, are supposed to be the wea-
pons of Fairy resentment, and are termed elf arrow-
heads. The rude brazen battle-axes of the ancients,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 309
commonly called celts, are also ascribed to tlieir manu-
facture. But, like the Gothic duergar, their skill is not
confined to the fabrication of arms ; for they are heard
sedulously hammering- in linns, precipices, and rocky
or cavernous situations, where, like the dwarfs of the
mines, mentioned by Georg-. Agricola, they busy them-
selves in imitating- the actions and the various employ-
ments of men. The Brook of Beaumont, for example,
which passes, in its course, by numerous linns and
caverns, is notorious for being- haunted by the Fairies ;
and the perforated and rounded stones which are formed
by trituration in its channel, are termed, by the vulg-ar,
fairy cups and dishes. A beautiful reason is assig-ned
by Fletcher for the fays frequenting- streams and foun-
tains : He tells us of
" A virtuous well, about wliose flowery banks
Tbe nimble-footed Fairies dance their rounds,
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality."
Faithful Sheperdess.
It is sometimes accounted unlucky to pass such
places, without performing- some ceremony to avert the
displeasure of the elves. There is, upon the top of
Minchmuir, a mountain in Peebles-shire, a spring- call-
ed the Cheese Well, because, anciently, those who
passed that way were wont to throve into it a piece of
cheese, as an offering- to the Fairies, to whom it was
consecrated.
310 MINSTRELSY OF
Like the f eld elf en of the Saxons, the usual dress of
the Fairies is g-reen ; thoug-h on the moors, they have
been sometimes observed in heath-brown, or in weeds
dyed with the stoneraw, or lichen.^ They often ride
in invisible procession, when their presence is disco-
vered by the shrill ringing of their bridles. On these
occasions, they sometimes borrow mortal steeds ; and
when such are found at morning, panting and fatigued
in their stalls, with their manes and tails dishevelled
and entangled, the grooms, I presume, often find this
a convenient excuse for their situation ; as the common
belief of the elves quaffing- the choicest liquors in the
cellars of the rich (see the story of Lord DufFus, be-
low) might occasionally cloak the delinquencies of an
unfaithful butler.
The Fairies, besides their equestrian processions, are
addicted, it would seem, to the pleasures of the chase.
A young sailor, travelling by night from Douglas, in
the Isle of Man, to visit his sister residing in Kirk
Merlugh, heard the noise of horses, the holloa of a
huntsman, and the sound of a horn. Immediately
afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in g-reen, and
gallantly mounted, swept past him. Jack was so much
delighted with the sport, that he followed them, and
enjoyed the sound of the horn for some miles ; and it
was not till he arrived at his sister's house, that he
learned the danger which he had incurred. I must not
omit to mention, that these little personages are ex-
•* Hence tlie hero of the ballad is termed an " elfin grey."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 311
pert jockeys, and scorn to ride the little Manks ponies,
though apparently well suited to their size. The ex-
ercise, therefore, falls heavily upon the English and
Irish horses, brought into the Isle of Man. Mr Wal-
dron was assured by a g-entleman of Ballafletcher, that
he had lost three or four capital hunters by these noc-
turnal excursions. — Waldron's IForAr^, p, 132. From
the same author we learn, that the Fairies sometimes
take more legitimate modes of procuring- horses. A
person of the utmost integ-rity informed him, that
having- occasion to sell a horse, he was accosted among-
the mountains by a little gentleman plainly dressed,
who priced his horse, cheapened him, and, after some
chaffering', linally purchased him. No sooner had the
buyer mounted, and paid the price, than he sunk
throug-li the earth, horse and man, to the astonish-
ment and terror of the seller ; who experienced, how-
ever, no inconvenience from dealing with so extraordi-
nary a purchaser.^ — Ihid, p. 135.
^ [" Under eacli of tliese six heads of dissertation, a number of
curious out-of-the-way relations are compiled from the forgotten
repositaries of fabulous marvels. Many of them will serve for the
story of future ballads, and tlie decoration of yet unicritten metrical
romances. They constitute the elements of British mythology ; and
in the hands of a Modern Odd, may be shapen into a wild cata-
logue of metamorphoses, into amusing anecdotes of sorcery, fableries
of romance, or tales of wonder, into a Thousand and One Nights'"
Entertainment, or golden legends of shuddering astonishment." —
Critical Revieic, November, 1803 — There is something here as
much the spirit of prophecy as of criticism — En.]
312 MINSTRELSY OP
It is hoped the reader will receive, with due respect,
these, and similar stories, told by Mr Waldron ; for he
himself, a scholar and a gentleman, informs us, " as to
circles in grass, and the impression of small feet among
the snow, I cannot deny but I have seen them fre-
quently, and once thought I heard a whistle, as though
in my ear, when nobody that could make it was near
me." In this passage there is a curious picture of the
contagious effects of a superstitious atmosphere. Wal-
dron had lived so long among the Manks, that he was
persuaded to believe their legends.
The worthy Captain George Burton communicated
to Richard Bovet, gent., author of the interesting work,
entitled " Pandsemonium, or the Devil's Cloister
Opened," the following singular account of a lad called
the Fairy Boy of Leith, who, it seems, acted as a
drummer to the elves, who weekly held rendezvous in
the Calton Hill, near Edinburgh.
" About fifteen years since, having business that de-
tamed me for some time at Leith, which is near Edin-
burgh, in the kingdom of Scotland, I often met some
of my acquaintance at a certain house there, where we
used to drink a glass of wine for our refection ; the
woman which kept the house was of honest reputa-
tion among the neighbours, which made me give the
more attention to what she told me one day about a
fairy boy, (as they called him,) who lived about that
town. She had given me so strange an account of
him, that I desired her I might see him the lirst op-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 313
portunity, which she promised ; and not long after,
passing- that way, she told me there was the fairy boy,
but a little before I came by ; and, casting her eye into
the street, said, Look you, sir, yonder he is at play
with those other boys; and designing him to me, I
went, and, by smooth words, and a piece of money, got
him to come into the house with me ; where, in the
presence of divers people, I demanded of him several
astrological questions, which he answered with great
subtilty ; and, through all his discourse, carried it with
a cunning much above his years, which seemed not to
exceed ten or eleven.
" He seemed to make a motion like drumming upon
the table with his fingers, upon which I asked him,
Whether he could beat a drum ? To which he re-
plied. Yes, sir, as well as any man in Scotland; for
every Thursday night I beat all points to a sort of
people that used to meet under yonder hill, (pointing
to the great hill between Edenborough and Leith.)
How, boy ? quoth I, What company have you there ?
There are, sir, (said he,) a great company both of men
and women, and they are entertained with many sorts
of musick, besides my drum ; they have, besides, plenty
of variety of meats and wine, and many times we are
carried into France or Holland in a night, and return
again, and whilst we are there, we enjoy all the plea-
sures the country doth aiford. I demanded of him how
they got under that hill ? To which he replied, that
there was a great pair of gates that opened to them,
314 MINSTRELSY OF
tlioiigli tliey were invisible to others ; and that within
there were brave large rooms, as well accommodated
as most in Scotland. — I then asked him, how I should
know what he said to be true ? Upon which he told
me he would read my fortune, saying-, I should have
two wives, and that he saw the forms of them sitting*
on my shoulders ; that both would be very handsome
women. As he was thus speaking, a woman of the
neighbourhood coming into the room, demanded of
him. What her fortune should be ? He told her that
she had two bastards before she was married, which
put her in such a rage, that she desired not to hear the
rest.
" The woman of the house told me that all the
people in Scotland could not keep him from the ren-
dezvous on Thursday night ; upon which, by promising
him some more money, I got a promise of him to meet
me at the same place, in the afternoon, the Thursday
following, and so dismist him at that time. The boy
came again, at the place and time appointed, and I had
prevailed wdth some friends to continue with me (if
possible) to prevent his moving that night. He was
placed between us, and answered many questions, until,
about eleven of the clock, he was got away unper-
ceived by the company; but I, suddenly missing him^
hasted to the door, and took hold of him, and so re-
turned him into the same room ; w^e all watched him>
and, of a sudden, he was again got out of doors ; I fol-
lowed him close, and he made a noise in the street, as
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 315
if he had been set upon ; but from that time I could
never see him. George Burton."
Pandcemonhnn^ or the DevWs Cloister. By Eichard
Bovet, Gent. Lond. 1684, p. 172.
" From the History of the Irish JBards, by Mr
Walker, and from the glossary subjoined to the lively
and ingenious Tale of Castle Rackrent, we learn, that
the same ideas concerning- Fairies are current among
the vulgar in that country. The latter authority men-
tions their inhabiting the ancient tumuli, called bar-
rows, and their abstracting mortals. They are termed
" the good people ; " and when an eddy of wind raises
loose dust and sand, the vulgar believe that it an-
nounces a Fairy procession, and bid God speed their
journey.
The Scottish Fairies, in like manner, sometimes re-
side in subterranean abodes, in the vicinity of human
habitations, or, according to the popular phrase, under
the " door-stane," or threshold ; in which situation, they
sometimes establish an intercourse with men, by bor-
rowing and lending, and other kindly offices. In this
capacity they are termed " the good neighbours," ^ from
^ Perhaps this epithet is only one example, among many, of the
extreme civility which the vulgar in Scotland use towards spirits of
a dubious, or even a determinedly mischievous, nature. The arch-
fiend himself is often distinguished by the softened title of the
"goodman." This epithet, so applied, must sound strange to a
southern ear ; but, as the phrase bears various interpretations, ac-
cording to the places where it is used, so, in the Scottish dialect,
the goochnan of such a place signifies the tenant, or life-renter, in
opposition to the laird, or proprietor. Hence, the devil is termed
316 MINSTFtELSY OF
supplying- privately the wants of their friends, and
assisting- them in all their transactions, while their
favours are concealed. Of this the traditionary story
of Sir Godfrey Macculloch forms a curious example.
As this Gallovidian g-entleman was taking the dr
on horseback, near his own house, he was suddenly
accosted by a little old man arrayed in green, and mount-
ed upon a white palfrey. After mutual salutation,
the old man gave Sir Godfrey to understand, that he
resided under his habitation, and that he had great rea-
son to complain of the direction of a drain, or com-
mon sewer, which emptied itself directly into his cham-
ber of dais.^ Sir Godfrey Macculloch was a good
deal startled at this extraordinary complaint ; but,
guessing the nature of the being he had to deal with,
he assured the old man, with great courtesy, that the
the goodman, or tenant, of the infernal regions. In the book of
the Universal Kiik, 13th May, 1594, mention is made of "the
horrible superstitoune usit in Garioch, and dyvers parts of the
countrie, in not labouring a parcel of ground dedicated to the devil,
under the title of the Guid-Maii's Croft." Lord Hailes conjec-
tured this to have been the temnos adjoining to some ancient Pagan
temple. The unavowed, but obvious, purpose of this practice, was
to avert the destructive rage of Satan from the neighbouring pos-
sessions. It required various fulminations of the General Assem-
bly of the Kirk to abolish a practice bordering so nearly upon the
doctrine of the Magi.
^ The best chamber was thus currently denominated in Scotland,
from the French dais, signifying that part of the ancient halls which
was elevated above the rest, and covered with a canopy. The turf-
seats, which occupy the sunny side of a cottage wall, are also term-
ed the dais.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 317
direction of the drain should be altered ; and caused it
to be done according-ly. Many years afterwards, Sir
Godfrey had the misfortune to kill, in a fray, a g-entle-
man of the neighbourhood. He was apprehended, tried,
and condemned.^ The scaffold, upon which his head
was to be struck off, was erected on the Castle hill of
Edinburgh ; but hardly had he reached the fatal spot,
when the old man upon his white palfrey, pressed
through the crowd, with the rapidity of lightning-. Sir
Godfrey, at his command, sprung- on behind him ; the
" g-ood neighbour" spurred his horse down the steep
bank, and neither he nor the criminal was ever ag-ain
seen.
The most formidable attribute of the elves, was the
practice of carrying- away and exchanging- children, and
that of stealing- human souls from their bodies. " A
persuasion prevails among- the ignorant," says the
author of a MS. history of Moray, that " in a con-
sumptive disease, the Fairies steal away the soul, and
put the soul of a Fairy in the room of it." This belief
prevails chiefly along the eastern coast of Scotland,
where a practice, apparently of druidical origin, is used
to avert the danger. In the increase of the March
moon, withes of oak and ivy are cut, and twisted into
wreaths or circles, which they preserve till next March.
After that period, when persons are consumptive, or
children hectic, they cause them to pass thrice through
^ In tMs particular, tradition coincides witli the real fact ; the
trial took place in 1697t
318 MINSTRELSY OF
these circles. In other cases the cure was more rough,
and at least as dangerous as the disease, as will appear
from the following extract : —
" There is one thing remarkable in this parish of
Suddie, (in Inverness-shire,) which I think proper to
mention. There is a small hill N.W. from the church,
commonly called Therdy Hill, or Hill of Therdie, as
some term it; on the top of which there is a well,
which I had the curiosity to view, because of the se-
veral reports concerning it. When children happen to
be sick, and languish long in their malady, so that they
almost turn skeletons, the common people imagine
they are taken away (at least the substance) by spirits,
called Fairies, and the shadow left with them ; so, at a
particular season in summer, they leave them all night
themselves, watching at a distance, near this well, and
this they imagine will either eiid or mend them ; they
say many more do recover than do not. Yea, an honest
tenant who lives hard by it, and whom I had the cu-
riosity to discourse about it, told me it has recovered
some, who were about eight or nine years of age, and
to his certain knowledge, they bring adult persons to
it; for, as he was passing one dark night, he heard
groanings, and, coming to the well, he found a man,
who had been long sick, wra})ped in a plaid, so that he
could scarcely move, a stake being fixed in the earth,
with a rope, or tedder, that was about the plaid ; he
had no sooner inquired what he was, but he conjured
him to loose him, and out of sympathy he v/as pleased
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 319
to slacken that wherein ha was, as I may so speal<:,
swaddled; but, if I right remember, he signified, he did
not recover." — Account of the Parish of Suddie, apud
Macfarlane's MSS.
According- to the earlier doctrine, concerning- the
original corruption of human nature, the power of
demons over infants had been long reckoned consider-
able, in the period intervening- between birth and bap-
tism. During- this period, therefore, children were
believed to be particularly liable to abstraction by the
fairies, and mothers chiefly dreaded the substitution of
changelings in the place of their own offspring-. Va-
rious monstrous charms existed in Scotland, for pro-
curing- the restoration of a child which had been thus
stolen ; but the most efficacious of them was supposed
to be, the roasting of the supposititious child upon the
live embers, when it was believed it would vanish, and
the true child appear in the place, whence it had been
originally abstracted.^ It may be questioned if this
experiment could now be made without the animad-
version of the law. Even that which is prescribed in
the following legend is rather too hazardous for mo-
dern use.
' Less perilous recipes were sometimes used. Tlie Editor is
possessed of a small relic, termed by tradition a toad-stone, tlie
influen -e of wliicli was supposed to preserve pregnant women from
the power of demons, and other dangers incidental to their situa-
tion. It has been carefully preserved for several generations, was
often pledged for considerable sums of money, and uniformly re-
'<leemed from a belief in its efficacv.
320 MINSTRELSY OF
" A certain woman having- put out her child to
nurse in the country, found, when she came to take it
home, that its form was so much altered that she scarce
knew it ; nevertheless, not knowing- what time might
do, took it home for her own. But when, after some
years, it could neither speak nor go, the poor woman
was fain to carry it, with much trouble, in her arms ;
and one day, a poor man coming- to the door, * God
bless you, mistress,' said he, ' and your poor child ; be
pleased to bestow something- on a poor man.' — ' Ah !
this child,' replied she, * is the cause of all my sorrow/
and related what had happened, adding, moreover, that
she thought it changed, and none of her child. The
old man, whom years had rendered more prudent in such
matters, told her, to find out the truth, she should make
a clear fire, sweep the hearth very clean, and place the
diild fast in his chair, that he might not fall, before it,
and break a dozen eggs, and place the four-and-twenty
half-shells before it ; then g-o out, and listen at the
door : for, if the child spoke, it was certainly a chang-e-
ling- ; and then she should carry it out, and leave it on
the dunghill to cry, and not to pity it, till she heard its
voice no more. The woman, having done all things
according to these words, heard the child say, ^ Seven
years old was I before I came to the nurse, and four
years have I lived since, and never saw so many milk
pans before.' So the woman took it up, and left it upon
the dunghill to cry, and not to be pitied, till at last she
thought the voice went up into the air ; and coming;
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 321
found there her own natural and well-favoured child."
— Grose's Provincial Glossm^y, quoted from " A
Pleasant Treatise on Witchcraft."
The most minute and authenticated account of an
exchanged child is to be found in Waldron's Isle of
Man, a book from which I have derived much legen-
dary information. " I was prevailed upon myself,"
says that author, " to go and see a child, who, they
told me, was one of these changeling's, and, indeed,
must own, was not a little surprised, as well as shock-
ed, at the sight. Nothing under heaven could have a
more beautiful face ; but, though between five and six
years old, and seemingly healthy, he was so far from
being able to walk or stand, that he could not so much
as move any one joint; his limbs were vastly long for
his age, but smaller than any infant's of six months ;
his complexion was perfectly delicate, and he had the
finest hair in the world. He never spoke nor cried, ate
scarce any thing, and was very seldom seen to smile ;
but if any one called him o. fairy-elf, he would frown,
and fix his eyes so earnestly on those who said it, as if
he would look them through. His mother, or at least
his supposed mother, being very poor, frequently went
out a chareing, and left him a whole day together. The
neighbours, out of curiosity, have often looked in at the
window, to see how he behaved while alone ; v/hich
whenever they did, they were sure to find him laugh-
ing, and in the utmost delight. This made them judge
that he was not without company, more pleasing to
VOL. II, X
322 MINSTRELSY OF
liim than any mortals could be ; and what made this
conjecture seem the more reasonable, was, that if he
were left ever so dirty, the woman, at her return, saw
him with a clean face, and his hair combed with the
utmost exactness and nicety." — P. 128.
Waldron gives another account of a poor woman, to
whose offspring, it would seem, the Fairies had taken
a special fancy. A few nights after she was delivered
of her first child, the family were alarmed by a dread-
ful cry of " Fire !" All flew to the door, while the
mother lay trembling in bed, unable to protect her in-
fant, which was snatched from the bed by an invisible
hand. Fortunately, the return of the gossips, after the
causeless alarm, disturbed the Fairies, who dropped the
child, which was found sprawling and shrieking upon
the threshold. At the good woman's second accouche-
ment, a tumult was heard in the cowhouse, which drew
thither the whole assistants. They returned, when
they found that all was quiet among the cattle, and lo !
the second child had been carried from the bed, and
dropped in the middle of the lane. But, upon the third
occurrence of the same kind, the company were again
decoyed out of the sick woman's chamber by a false
alarm, leaving only a nurse, who was detained by the
bonds of sleep. On this last occasion, the mother
plainly saw her child removed, though the means were
invisible. She screamed for assistance to the nurse .
but the old lady had partaken too deeply of the cordials
which circulate upon such joyful occasions, to be easily
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 323
awakened. In short, the child was this time fairly car-
ried off, and a withered, deformed creature left in its
stead, quite naked, with the clothes of the abstracted
infant, rolled in a bundle, by its side. This creature
lived nine years, ate nothing but a few herbs, and neither
spoke, stood, walked, nor performed any other functions
of mortality ; resembling-, in all respects, the change-
ling- already mentioned. — Waldrox's Works, ibid.
But the power of the Fairies was not confined to un-
christened children alone ; it was supposed frequently to
be extended to full-grown persons, especially such as in
an unlucky hour were devoted to the devjl by the exe-
cration of parents and of masters;^ or those who were
found asleep under a rock, or on a green hill, belong-
ing to the Fairies, after sunset, or, finally, to those
who unwarily joined their orgies. A tradition existed,
during the seventeenth century, concerning an ancestor
of the noble family of Duifus, who, " walking abroad
in the fields, near to his own house, was suddenly car-
ried away, and found the next day at Paris in the French
' This idea is not peculiar to the Gothic tribes, but extends to
those of Sclavic origin. Tooke {History of Russia, voL i. p.
100) relates, that the Russian peasants believe the nocturnal
demon Kikimoro to have been a child, vv-hom the devil stole out of
the womb of its mother, because she had cursed it. They also assert,
that if an execration against a child be spoken in an evil hour, the
child is cai-ried off by the devil. The beings, so stolen, are neither
fiends nor men ; ihey are invisible, and afraid of the cross and holy
water ; but, on the other hand, in their nature and dispositions
they res€mble mankind, whom they love, and rarely injure.
324 MINSTRELSY OF
king's cellar, vv^ith a silver cup in bis hand. Being-
brought into the king's presence, and questioned by
him who he was, and how he came thither, he told his
name, his country, and the place of his residence ; and
that, on such a day of the month, which proved to be
the day immediately preceding-, being- in the fields, he
heard the noise of a whirlwind, and of voices, crying,
' Horse and Hattock /' (this is the word which the
Fairies are said to use when they remove from any
place,) whereupon he cried ' Horse and Hattock ' also,
and was immediately caught up and transported through
the air, by the Fairies, to that place, where, after he
had drunk heartily, he fell asleep, and before he woke,
the rest of the company were gone, and had left him in
the posture wherein he was found. It is said the king-
gave him the cup which was found in his hand, and dis-
missed him." The narrator affirms, "that the cup was
still preserved, and known by the name of the Fairy
cupT He adds, that Mr Steward, tutor to the then
Lord Duifus, had informed him, that, " when a boy at
the school of Forres, he and his school-fellows were
upon a time whipping- their tops in the churchyard,
before the door of the church, wiien, though the day
was calm, they heard a noise of a wund, and at some
distance saw the small dust begin to rise and turn
round, which motion continued advancing- till it came
to the place where they were, whereupon they began to
bless themselves ; but one of their number being, it
seems, a little more bold and confident than his com-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 325
panions, said ' Horse and Hattock with my top, '' and
immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the
ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by
reason of a cloud of dust wdiich w^as raised at the same
time. They sought for the top all about the place
where it was taken up, but in vain ; and it was found
afterwards in the churchyard, on the other side of the
church." — This puerile legend is contained in a letter
from a learned gentleman in Scotland, to Mr Aubrey,
dated 15th March, 1695, published in Aubrey's 3Iis'
cellanies, p. 158.
Notwithstanding the special example of Lord Duffus,
and of the top, it is the common opinion, that persons
falling under the power of the Fairies, were only al-
lowed to revisit the haunts of men after seven years
had expired. At the end of seven years more, they
again disappeared, after which they were seldom seen
among mortals. The accounts they gave of their situa-
tion differ in some particulars. Sometimes they were
represented as leading a life of constant restlessness
and wandering by moonlight. According to others,
they inhabited a pleasant region, wdiere, however, their
situation was rendered horrible, by the sacrifice of one
or more individuals to the devil every seventh year.
This circumstance is mentioned in Alison Pearson's
indictment, and in the Tale of the Young Tamlane^
where it is termed, " the paying the kane to hell," or
according to some recitations, " the teind," or tenth.
This is the popular reason assigned for the desire of
326 MINSTRELSY OF
the Fairies to abstract young' children, as substitutes for
themselves in this dreadful tribute. Concerning- the
mode of whining, or recovering, persons abstracted by
the Fairies, tradition diifers ; but the popular opinion,
contrary to what may be inferred from the following-
tale, supposes, that the recovery must be effected within
a year and a day, to be held legal in the Fairy court.
This feat, which was reckoned an enterprise of equal
difficulty and dang-er, could only be accomplished on
Hallowe'en, at the great annual procession of the Fairy
court." Of this procession the following description is
found in Montgomery's Flyting against Polwart,
apud Watsons collection of Scots Poems, 1790, Part
III. p. 12.
" In the hinder end of harvest, on All -Hallowe'en,
When our good neighhonrs dois ride, if I read right,
Some buckled on a bunewand, and some on a bean,
Ay trottand in troups fi-om the twilight ;
Some saidled a she-ape, all grathed into green,
Some hobland on a hemp-stalk, hovand to the hight ;
The King of Pharie and his court, with the Elf Queen.
With many eliish incubus was ridand that night.
There an elf on an ape, an ursel begat,
Into a pot by Pomathorne ;
That bratchart in a busse was born ;
They fand a monster on the morn,
War faced nor a cat."
"^ See the inimitable poem of Hallowe'en —
" Upon thatuight, when Fairies light
On Cassilis Downan dance ;
Or o'er the leas, in splendid blaze.
On stately coursers prance," &c. — Burns,
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 327
The catastrophe of Tamlane terminated more suc-
cessfully than that of other attempts, which tradition
still records. The wife of a farmer in Lothian had been
earned off by the Fairies, and, dmnng- the year of pro-
bation, repeatedly appeared on Sunday, in the midst of
her children, combing- their hair. On one of these occa-
sions she was accosted by her husband ; when she re-
lated to him the unfortunate event which had separated
them, instructed him by what means he mig-ht ivin her,
and exhorted him to exert all his courage, since her
temporal and eternal happiness depended on the success
of his attempt. The farmer, who ardently loved his
wife, set out on Hallowe'en, and, in the midst of a plot
of furze, waited impatiently for the procession of the
Fairies. At the ringing- of the Fairy bridles, and the
wild unearthly sound which accompanied the cavalcade,
his heart failed him, and he suffered the ghostly train
to pass by without interruption. When the last had
rode past, the whole troop vanished, with loud shouts
of laughter and exultation ; among which he plainly
discovered the voice of his wife, lamenting that he had
lost her for ever.
A similar, but real incident, took place at the town
of North Berwick, within the memory of man. The
wife of a man above the lowest class of society, being
left alone in the house a few days after delivery, was
attacked and carried off by one of those convulsion-fits,
incident to her situation. Upon the return of the
family, who had been engaged in haymaking, or harvest,
328 MINSTRELSY OF
they found the corpse much disfigured. This circum-
stance, the natural consequence of her disease, led some
of the spectators to think that she had been carried oif
by the Fairies, and that the body before them was some
elfin deception. The husband, probably, paid little
attention to this opinion at the time. The body was
interred, and after a decent time had elapsed, finding
his domestic affairs absolutely required female super-
intendence, the widower paid his addresses to a young
woman in the neighbourhood. The recollection, how-
ever, of his former wife, whom he had tenderly loved,
haunted his slumbers ; and, one morning, he came to
the clergyman of the parish in the utmost dismay, de-
claring that she had appeared to him the preceding night,
informed him that she was a captive in Fairy Land, and
conjured him to attemjjt her deliverance. She direct-
ed him to bring the minister, and certain other persons,
whom she named, to her grave at midnight. Her body
was then to be dug up, and certain prayers recited ;
after which the corpse was to become animated, and
fly from them. One of the assistants, the swiftest
runner in the parish, was to pursue the body ; and, if
he was able to seize it, before it had thrice encircled
the church, the rest were to come to his assistance, and
detain it, in spite of the struggles it should use, and
the various shapes into which it might be transformed.
The redemption of the abstracted person was then
to become complete. The minister, a sensible man,
argued with his parishioner upon the indecency and
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 329
absurdity of what was proposed, and dismissed him. Next
Sunday, the banns being- for the first time proclaimed,
betwixt the widower and his new bride, his former wife,
very naturally, took the opportunity of the following
nig-ht to make him another visit, yet more terrific than
the former. She upbraided him with his incredulity,
his fickleness, and his want of affection ; and, to con-
vince him that her appearance was no aerial illusion,
she g-ave suck, in his presence, to her youngest child.
The man, under the greatest horror of mind, had again
recourse to the pastor ; and his ghostly counsellor fell
upon an admirable expedient to console him. This was
nothing less than dispensing with the formal solemnity*
of banns, and marrying him, without an hour's delay,
to the young woman to whom he was affianced ; after
which no spectre again disturbed his repose.^
* To these I liave now to add the following instance of redemp-
tion from Fairy Land. The legend is printed from a broadside still
popular in Ireland: —
" Near the town of Aberdeen, in Scotland, lived James Camp-
bell, who had one daughter, named JMary, who was married to John
Nelson, a young man of that neighbourhood. Shortly after their
marriage, they being a young couple, they went to live in the town
of Aberdeen, where he followed his trade, being a goldsmith ; they
lived loving and agreeable together until the time of her lying-in,
when there was female attendants prepared suitable to her situation ;
when near the hour of twelve at night they were alarmed with a
dreadful noise, at which of a sudden the candles went out, which
drove the attendants in the utmost confusion ; soon as the women
regained their half-lost senses, they called in their neighbours, who.
after striking up lights, and looking towards the lying-in woman,
found her a corpse, which caused great confusion in the family.
330 MINSTRELSY OF
Having- concluded these general observations upon
the Fairy superstition, which, although minute, may not,
I hope, be deemed altogether uninteresting-, I proceed
to the more particular illustrations, relating- to The
Tale of the Young Tamlane.
There was no grief could exceed that of her husband, who, next
morning, prepared ornaments for her funeral ; people of all sects
came to her wake, amongst others came the Rev. jMr Dodd, who,
at first sight of the corpse, said. It's not the body of any Chris-
tian, but that Mrs Nelson was taken away by the Fairies, and what
they took for her was only some substance left in her place. He
was not believed, so he refused attending her funeral ; they kept
her in the following night, and the next day she was interred.
" Her husband one evening after sunset, being riding in his own
field, heard a most pleasant concert of music, and soon after
espied a woman coming towards him dressed in white ; she being
veiled he could not observe her face, yet he rode near her, and
asked her very friendly who she was that chose to Avalk alone so
late in the evening? at which she unveiled her face, and burst into
tears, saying, 1 am not permitted to tell you who I am. He
knowing her to be his wife, asked her, in the name of God, what
disturbed her, or occasioned her to appear at that hour ? She said
her appearing at any hour was of no consequence ; for though you
believe me to be dead and buried, I am not, but was taken away by
the Fairies the night of my delivery : you only buried a piece of
wood in my place ; I can be recovered if you take proper means ;
as for my child, it has three nurses to attend it, but I fear it cannot
be brought home ; the greatest dependence I have on any person
is my brother Robert, who is a captain of a merchant ship, and will
be home in ten days hence. Her husband asked her what means
he should take to win her? She told him he should find a letter
the Sunday morning following, on the desk in his own room,
directed to her brother, wherein there would be directions for win-
ning her. Since my being taken from you I have had the attend-
ance of a queen or empress, and if you look over my right shoulder
THE SCOTTISH BORDER, 331
The following- ballad, still popular in Ettrick Forest,
where the scene is laid, is certainly of much greater
antiquity than its phraseology, g-radually modernized as
transmitted by tradition, would seem to denote. The
you will see several of my companions; he then did as she desired,
when, at a small distance, he saw a king and queen sitting, beside a
moat, on a throne, in splendour.
'' She then desired him to look right and left, which he did, and
observed other kings on each side of the king and queen, well
guarded. He said, I fear it is an impossibility to win you from
such a place. No, says she, were my brother Robert here in your
place, he would bring me home ; but let it not encourage you to
attempt the like, for that would occasion the loss of me for ever ;
there is now severe punishment threatened to me for speaking to
you ; but, to prevent that, do you ride up to the moat, where (sup-
pose you will see no person) all you now see will be near you, and
do you threaten to burn all the old thorns and brambles that is
round the moat, if you do not get a firm promise that I shall get no
punishment ; I shall be forgiven ; which he promised. She then
disappeared, and he lost sight of all he had seen ; he then rode very
resolutely up to the moat, and went round it, vowing he would burn
ill about it if he would not get a promise that his wife should get
no hurt. A voice desired him to cast away a book was in his
pocket, and then demand his request ; he answered he would not
part his book, but grant his request, or they should find the effect
of his rage. The voice answered, that upon honour she should be
forgave her fault, but for him to suffer no prejudice to come to the
moat, which he promised to fulfil, at which he heard most pleasant
music. He then returned home, and sent for the Reverend Mr
Dodd, and related to him what he had seen ; IMr Dodd staid with
him till Sunday morning following, when, as Mv Nelson looked on
the desk in his room, he espied a letter, which he took up, it being
directed to her brother, who in a few days came home ; on his re-
ceiving the letter he opened it, wherein he found the following —
'• •' Dear Brother, — IMy husband can relate to you my preseat
332 MINSTRELSY OF
Tale of the Young TamJane is mentioned in tiie Com-^
playnt of Scotland ; and the air, to wliich it was
chanted, seems to have been accommodated to a par-
ticular dance ; for the dance of Thorn of Lynn ^ another
circumstances. I request that you will (the first night after you
see this) come to the moat where I parted my husband : let nothing
daunt you, but stand in the centre of the moat at the hour of twelve
at night, and call me, when I, with several others, will surround
you ; I shall have on the whitest dress of any in company, then take
hold of me, and do not forsake me ; all the frightful methods they
shall use let it not surprise you, but keep your hold, suppose they
continue till cock-crow, when they shall vanish all of a sudden, and
I shall be safe, when I will return home and live with my husband.
If you succeed in your attempt, you will gain applause from all your
friends, and have the blessing of your ever-loving and affectionate
sister,
' JMary Nelsox.'
" No sooner had he read the letter than he vowed to win his
sister and her child, or perish in the attempt ; he returned to his
ship, and related to his sailors the consequence of the letter; he de-
layed till ten at night, when his loyal sailors offered to go with him,
which he refused, thinking it best to go alone. As he left his ship a
frightful lion came roaring towards him ; he drew his sword and
struck at the lion, which he observed was of no substance, it being
only the appearance of one, to terrify him in his attempt ; it only
encouraged him, so that he proceeded to the moat, in the centre of
which he observed a white handkerchief spread ; on which he was
surrounded with a number of women^ the cries of whom were the
most frightful he ever heard ; his sister being in the whitest dress of
any around him, he seized her by the right hand, and said. With the
help of God, I will preserve you from all infernal imps ; when of a
sudden, the moat seemed to be on fire around him. He likewise
heard the most dreadful thunder could be imagined ; frightful bird s
and beasts seemed to make towards him out of the fire which he
knew was not real ; nothing daunted his courage j he kept hold of
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 333
variation of Thomalin^ likewise occurs in the same
performance. Like every popular subject, it seems to
have heen frequently parodied ; and a burlesque ballad,
beginning-,
" Tom o' the Linn was a Scotsman born,"
is still well known.
In a medley, contained in a curious and ancient MS.
cantus, penes J. G. Dalyell, Esq., there is an allusion
to our ballad :
*' Sing young Tliomlin, be merry, be merry, and twice so merry."
In Scottish Songs, 1774, a part of the original tale
was published under the title of Kerton HoJ ; a cor-
his sister for the space of an hour and thi-ee quarters, when the cocksi
began to crow ; then the fire disappeared, and all the frightful imps
vanished. He held her in his arms, and fell on his knees, and gave
God thanks for his proceedings that night ; he believed her cloth-
ing to be light, he put his outside coat on her : she then embraced
him, saying, she Avas now safe, as he put any of his clothing on
her ; he then brought her home to her husband, which occasioned
great rejoicing. Her husband and he began to conclude to destroy
the moat in revenge of the child they had away, when instantly
they heard a voice, which, said, you shall have your son safe, and
well, on condition that you will not till the ground within three
perches of the moat, nor damage bushes or brambles round that
place, which they agreed to, when, in a few minutes, the child was
left on his mother's knee, which caused them to kneel and return
rhanks to God.
" The circumstance of this terrifying affair was occasioned by
leaving Mrs Nelson, the night of her lying-in, in the care of women
who were mostly intoxicated with liquor. It is requested both sexes
will take notice of the above, and not leave women in distress, but
with people who at such times mind their duty to God."
334 MINSTRELSY OF
ruption of Carterhaiigh ; and, in the same collection,
there is a fragment, containing two or three additional
verses, beginning
" I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager with you," &c.
In Johnston's Musical Musemn, a more complete
copy occurs, under the title of Tom Linn^ which, with
some alterations, was reprinted in the Tales ofWonde7\
The present edition is the most perfect which has
yet appeared ; being prepared from a collation of the
printed copies with a very accurate one in Glenriddel's
MSS. and with several recitals from tradition. Some
verses are omitted in this edition, being ascertained to
belong to a separate ballad, which will be found in a
subsequent part of the work. In one recital only, the
well-known fragment of the Wee, wee Man, was in-
troduced, in the same measure with the rest of the
poem. It was retained in the first edition, but is now-
omitted; as the Editor has been favoured, by the learn-
ed Mr Ritson, with a copy of the original poem, of
which it is a detached fragment. The Editor has been
enabled to add several verses of beauty and interest to
this edition of Tamlane, in consequence of a copy
obtained from a gentleman residing near Langholm,
w-hich is said to be very ancient, though the diction is
somewhat of a modern cast. The manners of the
Fairies are detailed at considerable length, and in poetry
of no common merit.
Carterhaugh is a plain, at the conflux of the Ettrick
and Yarrow in Selkirkshire, about a mile above Sel-
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 335
kirk, and two miles below Newark Castle ;'' a romantic
ruin, which overhangs the Yarrow, and which is said
to have been the habitation of our heroine's father,
though others place his residence in the tower of Oak-
wood. The peasants point out, upon the plain, those
electrical rings, which vulgar credulity supposes to be
traces of the Fairy revels. Here, they say, were placed
the stands of milk, and of water, in which Tamlane
was dipped, in order to eifect the disenchantment ; and
upon these spots, according* to their mode of express-
ing- themselves, the grass will never grow. Miles Cross,
(perhaps a corruption of Mary's Cross,) where fair
Janet awaited the arrival of the Fairy train, is said to
have stood near the Duke of Buccleuch's seat of Bow-
hill, about half a mile from Carterhaugh. In no part
of Scotland, indeed, has the belief in Fairies maintained
its ground with more pertinacity than in Selkirkshire.
The most sceptical among the lower ranks only ven-
ture to assert, that their appearances, and mischievous
exploits, have ceased, or at least become infrequent,
since the light of the gospel was diffused in its purity.
One of their frolics is said to have happened late in the
last centmy. The victim of elfin sport was a poor man,
who, being employed in pulling heather upon Peatlaw,
a hill not far from Carterhaugh, had tired of his labour,
and laid him down to sleep upon a Fairy ring. When
he awakened, he was amazed to find himself in the
midst of a populous city, to which, as well as to the
* [See notes to the Lay of the Last IMinstrel, Canto L]
336 MINSTRELSY OF
means of his transportation, be was an utter stranger.
His coat was left upon the Peatlaw ; and his bonnet,
which had fallen off in the course of his aerial journey,
was afterwards found hanging- upon the steeple of the
church of Lanark. The distress of the poor man was,
in some degree, relieved, by meeting a carrier whom he
had formerly known, and who conducted him back to
Selkirk, by a slower conveyance than had whirled him
to Glasgow. — That he had been carried off by the
Fairies was implicitly believed by all who did not re-
flect, that a man may have private reasons for leaving
his own country, and for disguising his having inten-
tionally done so.^
' [" We notice with particular approbation, a discourse in the 2d
volume, on the Fairies of Popular Superstition, in which the au-
thor takes a much wider range, than was to have been expected
from a collector of Border Ballads ; and evinces an extent of read-
ing and sagacity of conjecture, which have never before been ap-
plied to this subject. We recommend this treatise, as by far the
most_ learned, rational, and entertaining, that has yet been made
public, upon the subject of these superstitions." — Ediiiburgh Re-
view, No. II.
'' Though we cannot entirely approve the nature and extent of
Mr Scott's plan in ' the Minstrelsy,' yet the fidelity, taste, and
learning, which he has manifested in the execution of it, induce us
to cherish the hope that lie ivill employ his pen on more important
and nsefid subjects. Even from his present labours, indeed, the
curious inquirer may derive some ingenious and entertaining infor-
mation on several points connected with the antiquities and history
of Great Britain. Prefixed to The Young Tamlane is an acute
and philosophical dissertation on the Fairies of Poptdar Supersti-
tion,'" ^c. — Monthly Review, Sfptemler, 1803.]
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 33"
THE YOUNG TAMLANE.
"01 forbid ye, maidens a',
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tamlane is there.
" There's nane that gaes by Carterhaugh,
But maun leave him a wad,^
Either gowd rings or green mantles,
Or else their maidenheid.
" Now gowd rings ye may buy, maidens,
Green mantles ye may spin ;
But, gin ye lose your maidenheid,
Ye'll ne'er get that agen." —
But up then spake her, fair Janet,
The fairest o' a' her kin ;
" I'll cum and gang to Carterhaugh,
And ask nae leave o' him." —
1 TTad—Pledge.
VOL. II. Y
338 MINSTRELSY OF
Janet has kilted her green kirtle,^
A Httle abune her knee ;
And she has braided her yellow hair,
A httle abune her bree.
And when she came to Carterhaugh,
She gaed beside the well ;
And there she fand his steed standings
But away was himsell.
She hadna pu'd a red red rose^
A rose but barely three ;
Till up and starts a wee wee man.
At lady Janet's knee.
Says — " Why pu' ye the rose, Janet ?
What gars ye break the tree ?
Or why come ye to Carterhaugh,
Withouten leave o' me ? " —
Says — " Carterhaugh it is mine ain ;
My daddie gave it me :
I'll come and gang to Carterhaugh,
And ask nae leave o' thee."
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
Among the leaves sae green ;
' The ladies are always represented, in Dunbar's Poems, with
green mantles and yellow hair Maitland Poems, vol. i. p. 45.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER, 339
Aiid what they didj I cannot tell —
The gTeen leaves were between.
He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand,
Among- the roses red ;
And what they did, I cannot say —
She ne'er return'd a maid.
When she cam to her father's ha',
She looked pale and wan ;
They thought she'd dreed some sair sickness.
Or been with some leman.^
She didna comb her yellow hair,
Nor make meikle o' her head ;
And ilka thing- that lady took,
Was like to be her deid.^
It' four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the ba' ;
Janet, the wightest of them anes,
Was faintest o' them a'.
Four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the chess ;
And out there came the fair Janet,
As green as any grass.
' Leman — Lover. — ~ Deid — Deatli<.
340 MINSTRELSY OF
Out and spak an auld grey-headed knight,
Lay o'er the castle wa' —
" And ever, alas ! for thee, Janet,
But we'll be blamed a' ! " —
" Now haud your tongue, ye auld grey knight !
And an ill deid may ye die,
Father my bairn on whom I will,
111 father nane on thee." —
Out then spak her father dear,
And he spak meik and mild —
" And ever, alas ! my sweet Janet,
I fear ye gae with child.'' —
" And if I be with child, father,
Mysell maun bear the blame ;
There's ne'er a knight about your ha'
Shall hae the bairnie's name.
" And if I be with child, father,
'Twill prove a wondrous birth ;
For weel I swear I'm not wi' bairn
To any man on earth.
" If my love were an earthly knight,
As he's an elfin grey,
I wadna gie my ain true love
For nae lord that ye hae." — -
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 341
She prink'd hersell and prinn'd hersell,
By the ae light of the moon,
And she's away to Carterhaugh,
To speak wi' young- Tamlane.
And when she cam to Carterhaugh,
She gaed beside the well ;
And there she saw the steed standing,
But away was himsell.
She hadna pu'd a double rose,
A rose but only twae,
When up and started young Tamlane,
Says—" Lady, thou pu's nae mae !
>' Why pu' ye the rose, Janet,
Within this garden grene.
And a' to kill the bonny babe,
That we got us between ? "—
•' The truth ye'll tell to me, Tamlane:
A word ye mauna lie ;
Gin e'er ye was in haly chapel,
Or sained ^ in Christentie ? " —
-' The truth Til tell to thee, Janet,
A word I winna lie ;
Sained — Hallowed — [Signed with the Cross? — Ed.]
342 MINSTRELSY OF
A knight me got, and a lady me bore,
As well as they did thee.
" Randolph, Earl Murray, was my sire,
Dunbar, Earl March, is thine ; ^
We loved when we were children small,
Which yet you well may mind.
" When I was a boy just turn'd of nine,
My uncle sent for me.
To hunt, and hawk, and ride with him^
And keep him companie.
" There came a wind out of the north,
A sharp wind and a snell ;
And a deep sleep came over me,
And frae my horse I fell.
" The Queen of Fairies keppit me
In yon green hill to dwell ;
And I'm a fairy, lyth and limb ;
Fair ladye, view me well.
' Botli these miglity chiefs were connected with. Ettrick Forest
and its vicinity. Their memory, therefore, lived in the traditions
of the country. Randolph, Earl of JMurray, the renowned nephew
of Robert Bruce, had a castle at Ha' Guards, in Annandale, and
another in Peebles-shire, on the borders of the forest, the site of
which is still called Randall's Walls. Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of
March, is said, by Henry the Minstrel, to have retreated to Ettrick
Forest, after being defeated by Wallace.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 343
•• But we, that live in Fairy-land,
No sickness know, nor pain,
I quit my body when I will,
And take to it again.
" I quit my body when I please,
Or unto it repair ;
We can inhabit, at our ease,
In either earth or air.
" Our shapes and size we can convert
To either large or small ;
An old nut-shell's the same to us
As is the lofty hall.
" We sleep in rose-buds soft and sweet.
We revel in the stream ;
We wanton lightly on the wind.
Or glide on a sunbeam.
" And all our wants are well supplied
From every rich man's store,
Who thankless sins the gifts he gets.
And vainly grasps for more.^
^ To sin our gifts or mercies, means, ungratefully to hold them
in slight esteem. The idea, that the possessions of the wicked are
most obnoxious to the depredations of evil spirits, may be illustrated
by the following tale of a Buttery Spirit, extracted from Thomas
Hey wood : —
" An ancient and virtuous monk came to visit his nephew, an
344 MINSTRELSY OF
" Then would I never tire, Janet,
In Elfish land to dwell ;
But aye, at every seven years,
They pay the teind to hell ;
And I am sae fat and fair of flesh,
I fear 'twill be mysell.
" This nig-ht is Hallowe'en, Janet,
The morn is Hallowday ;
innkeeper, and, after other discourse, inquired into liis circumstan-
ces. Mine liost confessed, that, although he practised all the un-
conscionable tricks of his trade, he was still miserably poor. The
monk shook his head, and asked to see his buttery, or larder. As
they looked into it, he rendered visible to the astonished host an im-
mense goblin, whose paunch, and whole appearance, bespoke his
being gorged with food, and who, nevertheless, was gormandizing
at the innkeeper's expense, emptying whole shelves of food, and
washing it down with entire hogsheads of liquor. ' To the depre-
dation of this visitor will thy viands be exposed,' quoth the uncle,
' until thou shalt abandon fraud and false reckonings.' The monk
returned in a year. The ho^t having turned over a new leaf, and
given Christian measure to his customers, was now a thriving man.
When they again inspected the larder, they saw the same spirit, but
wofully reduced in size, and in vain attempting to reach at the full
plates and bottles which stood around him ; starving, in short, like
Tantalus, in the midst of plenty. " Honest Hey wood sums up the
tale thus : —
" In this discourse, far be it we should mean
Spirits by meat are fatted made, or lean ;
Yet certain 'tis^ by God's permission, they
May, over goods extorted, bear like sway.
All such as study fraud, and practise evil.
Do only starve themselves to plume the devil."
Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels, p. 577.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 345
And, gin ye dare your true love win.
Ye hae nae time to stay.
" The night it is good Hallowe'en,
When fairy folk will ride ;
And they that wad their true-love win^
At Miles Cross they maun bide." —
" But how shall I thee ken, Tamlane ?
Or how shall I thee knaw,
Amang so many unearthly knights,
The like I never saw ? " —
" The first company that passes by.
Say na, and let them gae ;
The next company that passes by,
Sae na, and do right sae ;
The third company that passes by,
Then I'll be ane o' thae.
^' First let pass the black, Janet,
And syne let pass the brown;
But grip ye to the milk-white steed.
And pu' the rider down.
" For I ride on the milk-white steed,
And aye nearest the town ;
Because I was a christen'd knight,
They gave me that renown.
346 MINSTRELSY OF
" My right hand will be gloved, Janet,
My left hand will he hare ;
And these the tokens I gie thee,
Nae doubt I will be there.
" They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
An adder and a snake ;
But had me fast, let me not pass.
Gin ye wad buy me maik.^
" They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
An adder and an ask ;
They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
A bale^ that burns fast.
'* They'll turn me in your arms, Janet,
A red-hot gad o' airn ;
But haud me fast, let me not pass.
For I'll do you no harm.
" First dip me in a stand o' milk,
And then in a stand o' water ;
But had me fast, let me not pass —
I'll be your bairn's father.
" And, next, they'll shape me in your arms,
A tod, but and an eel ;
^ Maik — A Match; a Companion. — ^ Bale — A fagot.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 347
But had me fast, nor let me gang,
As you do love me weel.
" They'll shape me in your arms, Janet,
A dove, but and a swan ;
And, last, they'll shape me in your arms
A mother-naked man :
Cast your green mantle over me — •
I'll be myself again." —
Gloomy, gloomy, was the night,
And eiry^ was the way.
As fair Janet in her green mantle,
To Miles Cross she did gae.
The heavens were black, the night was dark,
And dreary w^as the place ;
But Janet stood, with eager wish,
Her lover to embrace.
Betwixt the hours of twelve and one,
A north wind tore the bent ;
And straight she heard strange elritch sounds,
Upon that wind which went.
About the dead hour o' the night,
She heard the bridles ring ;
^ Eiry — Producing superstitious dread.
348 MINSTRELSY OF
And Janet was as glad o' that
As any earthly thing.
Their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrilly
The hemlock small blew clear ;
And louder notes from hemlock large,
And bog-reed, struck the ear ;
But solemn sounds, or sober thoughts,
The Fairies cannot bear.
They sing, inspired with love and joy,
Like skylarks in the air ;
Of solid sense, or thought that's grave,
You'll find no traces there.
Fair Janet stood, with mind unmoved,
The dreary heath upon ;
And louder, louder wax'd the sound.
As they came riding on.
Will o' Wisp before them went,
Sent forth a twinkling light ;
And soon she saw the Fairy bands
All riding in her sight.
And first gaed by the black black steed.
And then gaed by the brown ;
But fast she gript the milk-white steed.
And pu'd the rider down.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 349
She pii'd him frae the milk-white steed,
And loot the bridle fa' ;
And up there raise an erlish^ cry —
" He's won among us a' ! " —
They shaped him in fair Janet's arms,
An esk, " but and an adder ;
She held him fast in every shape —
To be her bairn's father.
They shaped him in her arms at last,
A mother-naked man :
She wrapt him in her green mantle,
And sae her true love wan !
Up then spake the Queen o' Fairies,
Out o' a bush o' broom —
" She that has borrow'd young Tamlane,
Has gotten a stately groom." —
Up then spake the Queen o' Fairies,
Out o' a bush o' rye —
" She's ta'en awa the bonniest knight
In a my cumpanie.
" But had I kenn'd, Tamlane," she says,
'< A lady wad borrow'd thee —
1 ^r/^'s/i— Elritcli J ghastly.— ^ £'s^_Newt.
350 MINSTRELSY OF
I wad ta'en out thy twa grey een,
Put in twa een o' tree.
" Had I but kenn'd, Tamlane," she says,
" Before ye came frae hame —
I wad ta'en out your heart o' flesh,
Put in a heart o' stane.
" Had I but had the wit yestreen
That I hae coft^ the day —
I'd paid my kane^ seven times to hell
Ere you'd been won away ! "
1 Coft — Bought. — - Ka)ie — Rent paid in kind.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 351
ERLINTON,
?nEver before published.
This ballad is published from the collation of two
copies, obtained from recitation. It seems to be the
rude original, or perhaps a corrupt and imperfect
copy, of The Child of Elle, a beautiful legendary
tale, published in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry. It
is singular that this charming ballad should have been
translated, or imitated, by the celebrated Biirger,
without acknowledgment of the English Original. As
The Cliild of Elle avowedly received corrections,
we may ascribe its greatest beauties to the poetical taste
of the ingenious editor. They are in the true style
of Gothic embellishment. We may compare, for ex-
ample the following beautiful verse, with the same
idea in an old romance : —
" The baron stroked his dark-brown cheek,
And turned his face aside,
To wipe away the starting tear,
He proudly strove to hide ! "
Child of Elle.
352 MINSTRELSY OF
The heathen Soldan, or Amiral, when about to slay
two lovers, relents in a similar manner : —
" Weeping, he turned his heued awai,
And his swerde hit fell to grounde."
Florice and Blauncheflour..
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 35S
ERLINTON.
Erlinton had a fair daughter,
I wat he weird her in a great sin,^
For he has built a bigly bower,
An' a' to put that lady in«
An' he has warn'd her sisters six,
An' sae has he her brethren se'en,
Outher to watch her a' the night.
Or else to seek her morn and e'en.
She hadna been i' that bigly bower,
Na not a night but barely ane,
Till there was Willie, her ain true love,
Chapp'd at the door, cryin', " Peace within! " —
" O whae is this at my bower door,
That chaps sae late, or kens the gin?" — *
* Weird her iti a great sin — Placed her in danger of committing-
a great sin.
- Gin — The slight or trick necessary to open the door ; from
engine.
VOL. II. Z
354 MINSTRELSY OF
" O it is Willie, your ain true love,
I pray you rise and let me in !" —
" But in my bower there is a wake,
An' at the wake there is a wane ;^
But I'll come to the green-wood the morn,
Whar blooms the brier, by mornin' dawn." —
Then she's g-ane to her bed again,
Vvhere she has layen till the cock crew thrice,
Then she said to her sisters a',
" Maidens, 'tis time for us to rise." —
She pat on her back a silken g-own,
An' on her breast a siller pin.
An' she's ta'en a sister in ilka hand.
And to the green-wood she is gane.
She hadna walk'd in the green-wood,
Na not a mile but barely ane.
Till there was Willie, her ain true loye,
Wha frae her sisters has her ta'en>
He took her sisters by the hand,
He kiss'd them baith, and sent them hame,
An' he's ta'en his true love him behind,
And through the green-wood they are gane.
* Wane — A number of people.
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 355
They hadna ridden in the bonnie green-wood,
Na not a mile but barely ane,
When there came fifteen o' the boldest knights,
That ever bare flesh, blood, or bane.
The foremost was an aged knight,
He wore the grey hair on his chin,
Says, " Yield to me thy lady bright.
An' thou shalt walk the woods within^ '* —
" For me to yield my lady bright
To such an aged knight as thee,
People wad think I war gane mad.
Or a' the courage flown frae me." —
But up then spake the second knight,
I wat he spake right boustouslie,
" Yield me thy life, or thy lady bright,
Or here the tane of us shall die."—
" My lady is my warld's meed :
My life I winna yield to nane ;
But if ye be men of your manhead,
Ye'll only fight me ane by ane." —
He lighted aff his milk-white steed,
An' gae his lady him by the head,
Say'n, " See ye dinna change your cheer,
Until ye see my body bleed." —
356 , MINSTRELSY OF
He set his back unto an aik,
He set his feet against a stane,
• An' he has fought these fifteen men,
An' killed them a' but barely ane :
For he has left that aged knight,
An' a' to carry the tidings hame.
When he gaed to his lady fair,
I wat he kiss'd her tenderlie ;
*' Thou art mine ain love, I have thee bought ;
Now we shall walk the green-wood free."
THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 357
THE TWA CORBIES.
This Poem was communicated to me by Charles
Kirkpatrick Sliarpe, Esq., jun. of Hoddom, as written
down, from tradition, by a lady. It is a singular cir-
cumstance, that it should coincide so very nearly with
the ancient dirg-e, called, The Three Ravens, pulj-
lished by Mr Ritson, in his Ancient Songs ; and that,
at the same time, there should exist such a difference, as
to make the one appear rather a counterpart than copy
of the other. In order to enable the curious reader to
contrast these two singular poems, and to form a judg-
ment which may be the original, I take the liberty of
copying the English ballad from Mr Ritson's Collec-
tion, omitting only the burden and repetition of the
first line. The learned Editor states it to be given
it From Ravenscvoft's MeUsmata. Musical Phan-
sies, fitting the Cittie and Country Humours, to 3, 4,
cmd 5 Voyces,'' London, 1611, 4to. " It will be obvious>"
continues Mr Ritson, " that this ballad is much older,
not only than the date of the book, but most of the
other pieces contained in it." The music is given with
the words, and adapted to four voices :—
358 MINSTRELSY OF
There were three rauens sat on a tre.
They were as blacke as they might be :
The one of them said to his mate,
" Where shall we our breakefast take ?" — ,
" Downe in yonder greene field,
There lies a knight slain under his shield ;
" His hounds they lie downe at his feete.
So well they their master keepe ;
" His haukes they flie so eagerlie,
There's no fowle dare come him nie.
* ' Down there comes a fallow doe.
As great with yong as she might goe.
" She lift up his bloudy hed,
And kist his wounds that were so red.
*' She got him up upon her backe,
And carried him to earthen lake.
" She buried him before the prime,
She was dead her selfe ere euen song time.
*' God send euery gentleman.
Such haukes, such houndes, and such a leman."
Ancient Songs, 1792, p. 155.
I haye seen a copy of this dirge much modernized.
TFIE SCOTTISH BORDER. 359
THE TWA CORBIES.^
As I was walking" all alane,
I heard twa corbies making- a mane ;
The tane nnto the t'other say,
" ^^Tiere sail we gang and dine to-day?" —
<' In behint yon auld faiF dyke,
I wot there lies a new-slain knight ;
And naebody kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.
^ [" Any person wlio tas read the Minstrelsij of the Scottish Bor~
der witli attention, must have observed what a singular degree of
interest and feehng the simple ballad of ' The Twa Corbies' im-
presses upon the mind, which is rather increased than diminished
by the imfinished state in which the story is left. It appears as if
the bard had found liis powers of description inadequate to a detail
of the circumstances attending the fatal catastrophe, without suf-
fering the interest already roused to subside, and had artfully con-
signed it over to the fancy of every reader to paint it what way he
chose ; or else that he lamented the untimely fate of a knight, whose
base treatment he durst not otherwise make known than in that
short parabolical dialogue. That the original is not improved in the
following ballad, (' Sir David Graeme,') will too manifestly appear
upon perusal. I think it, however, but just to acknowledge, that
the idea was suggested to me by reading the ' Twa Corbies.' "—
Hogg's Mountain Bard, third edition, p. 4 Ed.]
2 Fail-i:uxU
360 MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
" His hound is to the hunting' gane,
His hawk, to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady's ta'en another mate,
So we may mak our dinner sweet.
" Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane, ^
And I'll pick out his bonny blue een :
Wi' ae lock o' his g-owden hair.
We'll theek- our nest when it g-rows bare.
" Mony a one for him makes mane.
But nane sail ken where he is gane :
O'er his white banes, when they are bare.
The wind sail blaw for evermair." —
' Hause — neck ^ Theek — Tliatch.
2 Various reading —
" We'll theek our nest — it's a' blawn bare."
END OF VOLUME SECOND.
TRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK, EDINBURGH.
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